UC-NRLF 


013 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

RECEIVED   BY   EXCHANGE 


Class    /J 


CEREMONIES 


CONNKCTKI)    \VJTII 

INAUGURATION    OF    THE    MAUSOLEUM    AND    THK    UXVE1LIN' 
OF  THK  RECUMBENT  FIGURE 


GENERAL  ROBERT  EDWARD  LEE, 


WASHINGTON  AND  LEE  UNIVERSITY, 


LEXINGTON,  VA..  JUNE  28,  188'). 


ORATION  OF  JOHN  W.  DANIEL,  LL  D, 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH 


LEE   MEMORIAL  ASSOCIATION 


RICHMOND,  V 

W  K  *  T  ,     .1  O  1 1  N  ,S  T  O 

1883. 


3H. 


CEREMONIES 


OOKXECTXD  WITH 

THE    INAUGURATION    OF    THE    MAUSOLEUM    AND    THE    UNVEILING 
OF  THE  RECUMBENT  FIGURE 


OF 


GENERAL  ROBERT  EDWARD  LEE, 


WASHINGTON  AND  LEE  UNIVERSITY 


LEXINGTON,  VA.,  JUKE  28,  1883. 


ORATION  OF  JOHN  W.  DANIEL  LL.  D, 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH 


LEE    MEMORIAL  ASSOCIATION 


RICHMOND,  VA.r 
pT.  JpnKsxoar   &~   Co. 


3H1  JO 

' 


.'U 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

OF  THE 

LEE  MEMORIAL  ASSOCIATION, 

BY 

W.   ALLAN, 

A  Member  of  ths  Executive  Committee, 


GENERAL  ROBERT  EDWARD  LEE  was  prostrated  bj  his  last 
illness  on  September  28,  1870.  He  died  two  weeks  later,  on 
the  morning  of  October  12.  On  October  15  he  was  buried 
beneath  the  chapel  of  Washington  College,  now  Washington 
and  Lee  University,  Lexington,  Virginia.  This  place  was 
selected  by  Mrs.  Lee  after  the  authorities  of  the  College  had 
placed  at  her  disposal  any  part  of  the  grounds  she  might  prefer. 
The  day,  though  full  of  the  glory  of  autumn,  was  the  most 
mournful  in  the  annals  of  Lexington.  A  vast  concourse,  com 
prising  the  entire  population  of  the  town  and  the  vicinity,  with 
delegations  from  other  places,  followed,  with  sadness  and  tears, 
the  remains  of  General  Lee  to  the  tomb.  The  funeral  services 
were  conducted  by  the  Rev.  W.  N.  Pendleton,  D.  D.,  (late 
Brigadier  General  and  Chief  of  Artillery  of  the  Army  of  North 
ern  Virginia,)  the  rector  of  Grace  Episcopal  Church,  of  which 
General  Lee  was  a  member.  The  body  was  deposited  in  a  vault 
prepared  for  the  purpose. 

On  the  day  of  the  funeral  a  large  number  of  ex-Confederate 
soldiers  assembled  in  the  court-house  at  Lexington,  and  after 
giving  expression  to  the  love  and  veneration  of  the  South  for 
General  Lee,  and  to  the  sorrow  at  his  death,  resolved  to  take 
steps  to  erect  a  monument  in  honor  of  their  great  leader.  They 
felt  that  even  in  the  midst  of  poverty  and  disaster,  no  labor 
could  be  more  grateful,  no  duty  more  sacred,  than  that  of 
making  manifest  to  the  future,  in  some  enduring  way,  the  love 
and  admiration  of  his  countrymen  for  the  character  and  genius 
of  Robert  E.  Leo.  •  •:•:;•,•; 


At  tliis  meeting  was  formed  the  LEE  MEMORIAL  ASSOCIATION, 
and  the  following  were  appointed  an  Executive  Committee  to 
carry  into  effect  the  objects  of  the  Association  : 

Gen.  W.  N.  Pendleton,  Chief  Artillery,  A.  N.  Y. 

Capt.  J.  J.  White,  Liberty  Hall  Vols.,  4th  Ya.  Reg't 

Col.  J.  K.  Edmondson,  27th  Ya.  Reg't. 

Col.  W.  Preston  Johnston,  Staff  of  President  Davis. 

Capt.  A.  Graham,  Rockbridge  Artillery. 

Maj.  Jas.  B.  Dorman,  C.  S.  A. 

Lt,Col.  W.  Allan,  Chief  Ord.  Officer,  2nd  Corps,  A.  N.  Y. 

Capt.  J.  C.  Boude,  27th  Ya.  Reg't. 

Capt.  C.  A.  Davidson,  1st  Ya.  Battalion. 

Lt.-Col.  Win.  M.  McLaughlin,  Artillery,  C.  S.  A. 

Lt.-Col.  J.  W.  Massie,  51st  Ya.  Reg't. 

W.  A.  Anderson,  Liberty  Hall  Vols.,  4th  Ya.  Reg't. 

This  Committee  met  October  24,  1870,  at  the  office  of  Capt. 
C.  A.  Davidson,  and  organized  by  electing  Gen.  W.  X.  Pen 
dleton  as  chairman,  and  Capt.  Charles  A.Davidson  as  secretary. 
The  Committee,  in  accordance  with  the  duties  entrusted  to  it, 
then  elected  the  -following  officers  of  the  Lee  Memorial 
Association  : 

President — Gen.  Jno.  C.  Breckinridge,  of  Kentucky. 

Yice-Pres't-at-Large — Gen.  Jos.  E.Johnston,  of  Yirginia. 

^r-     -   -     |  Gen.  Jubal  A.  Early, 
Yice-Pres  ts   from  A  irgmia,  |  CoL  WaUer  n  Tajlor 

Yice-Pres't  from  Louisiana,  Gen.  P.  G.  T.  Beauregard. 

«       «  "     X.  Carolina,  Gen.  D.  II.  Hill. 

"       "          "     S.  Carolina,  Gen.  Wade  Hampton. 

"       "          "     Georgia,  Gen.  John  B.  Gordon. 

'•       «          "     Alabama,  Gen.  W.  J,  IJardee. 

';       u          "     Mississippi,  Gen.  S.  D.  Lee. 

"       "          u     Tennessee,  R.  S.  Ewell. 

"       u          i;     Texas,  Gen.  Jno.  B.  Hood. 

«       «          a     Maryland,  Gen.  I.  R.  Trimble. 

«•       "          -     Missouri,  Gen.  J.  S.  Marmaduke. 

*'       -          •'     Arkansas.  Gen.  J.  C.  Tappan. 
Treasurer,  C.  M.  Fig^JEsq.j-Piiijar  pa'rik  of  Lexington,  Ya. 


A  committee  was  appointed  to  prepare  an  address  for  publi 
cation,  setting  forth  the  purposes  of  the  Association,  and  an 
other  committee  was  instructed  to  draw  up  a  charter,  and  to 
submit  it  to  the  Legislature  of  Virginia  for  enactment. 

Mrs.  Mary  Custis  Lee  was  requested  by  the  Executive  Com 
mittee  to  indicate  her  preference  in  regard  to  the  monument  to 
be  erected  by  the  Association,  and  at  her  suggestion,  Mr.  Ed.  Y. 
Valentine,  the  distinguished  Virginian  sculptor,  was  sent  for. 
Mr.  Valentine  had,  the  preceding  summer,  modeled  a  bust  of 
General  Lee  from  life,  which  was  considered  an  admirable 
work  of  art.  Mrs.  Lee,  after  examining  a  number  of  drawings 
and  photographs  of  celebrated  works  of  art,  suggested,  as  a 
suitable  design  for  the  monument,  a  recumbent  figure  of  Gen 
eral  Lee  lying- asleep  upon  the  field  of  battle.  The  design  was 
suggested  to  her  by  Ranch's  figure  of  Louise  of  Prussia  in  the 
mausoleum  at  Chariot  ten  burg.  This  figure  of  Lee,  some 
what  above  life  size,  was  to  be  placed  upon  a  sarcophagus  suit 
ably  inscribed  and  decorated.  The  whole  was  to  be  of  white 
marble  and  was  designed  to  be  placed  over  the  remains  of  Gen 
eral  Lee. 

The  suggestions  of  Mrs.  Lee,  both  as  to  the  monument  and 
as  to  the  artist,  having  been  cordially  adopted  by  the  Associa 
tion,  Mr.  Valentine  was,  on  November  24,  1870,  requested  to 
"prepare  a  design  for  the  tomb  of  Gen.  R.  E.  Lee,  proposed 
to  be  erected,  and  an  estimate  of  the  probable  cost  of  the  same." 
Measures  were  also  taken  for  collecting  from  the  admirers  of 
General  Lee,  the  funds  needed  for  erecting  the  monument. 
Liberal  responses  were  received  from  a  number  of  sources, 
among  which  was  a  donation  of  $1000  from  W.  W.  Corcoran, 
Esq.,  of  Washington,  and  the  Executive  Committee  became 
satisfied  that  the  means  needed  for  the  work  could  be  obtained* 

On  June  23, 1871,  Mr.  Valentine,  having  completed  a  model 
of  the  proposed  figure  and  sarcophagus,  appeared  before  the 
Executive  Committee  and  submitted  it  together  with  an  esti 
mate  of  cost.  This  latter  amounted  to  $15,000.  The  model 
was  approved  and  accepted,  and  Mr.  Valentine  was  commis 
sioned  to  go  on  with  the  work. 


6 

By  the  fall  of  1872  Mr.  Valentine  bad  completed  the  cast  of 
the  monument  in  plaster  and  was  ready  to  put  it  into  marble. 
Some  §5,000  bad  up  to  this  time  been  contributed  to  the  Asso 
ciation,  and  active  steps  were  now  taken  to  collect  the  remain 
der  of  the  sum  needed  to  secure  the  completion  of  the  figure. 
The  Association  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  at  its 
meeting  in  Richmond,  October  31,  1872,  resolved  : 

"  That  the  sarcophagus  now  in  course  of  preparation  by  our 
Virginian  artist,  Valentine,  to  be  placed  over  the  tomb  of  Lee, 
at  Lexington,  commends  itself  to  especial  favor  as  promising, 
from  the  beauty  of  the  design,  and  the  skill  of  the  sculptor,  to 
be  a  worthy  memorial  of  our  departed  chief. 

**  That  for  the  purpose  of  assuring  and  expediting  the  com 
pletion  of  this  noble  work  of  art,  to  be  placed,  as  a  fitting  token 
of  a  whole  people's  love  and  homage,  above  the  ashes  of  their 
dead  hero,  we  recommend  to  the  ladies  of  the  South  to  hold 
memorial  meetings  on  the  next  anniversary  of  the  birth  of 
Gen.  R.  E.  Lee,  and  to  take  such  measures  as  shall  to  them 
seem  best  for  collecting  money  on  that  day  to  be  specially  ap 
propriated  to  the  decoration  of  his  tomb  by  the  erection  of  the 
sarcophagus." 

The  Memorial  Association  in  an  address  united  their  voice 
with  that  of  the  Association  of  the  A.  N.  V. 

The  ladies  of  Lexington  promptly  responded  by  having  a 
fair  and  a  cantata  in  the  winter  of  1872-'3,  the  proceeds  of 
which,  amounting  to  over  $800,  were  turned  over  to  the  Asso 
ciation.  This  sum  was  still  further  increased  by  private  sub 
scriptions.  The  example  thus  set  was  followed  in  many  other 
places.  On  the  20th  January,  1873,  contributions  were  made 
in  a  number  of  Southern  cities  and  towns  to  the  object  of  the 
Association.  In  Savannah,  Gen.  Hampton,  by  invitation,  de 
livered  a  lecture  upon  Gen.  Lee,  which  added  over  $500  to  the 
funds  of  the  Association.  The  ladies  of  Leesburg,  Va.,  of 
Alexandria,  Va.,  and  of  Palmyra,  Missouri,  sent  handsome 
contributions.  Similar  responses  came  from  many  other  places. 
During  the  spring  and  summer  contributions  continued  to  come 
in.  Among  these  was  a  liberal  donation  of  $500  from  W.  H. 


McLellan,  Esq.,  of  New  Orleans.  Admirers  of  Gen.  Lee 
abroad  also  contributed  liberally.  Mr.  W.  T.  McCanslane,  of 
Glasgow,  Scotland,  took  particular  interest  in  the  matter,  and 
through  his  efforts  nearly  $700  were  added  to  the  funds  of  the 
Association.  A  considerable  sum  was  realized  from  a  steel 
engraving  of  Gen.  Lee  published  by  Bostwick  &  Co.,  of  Cin 
cinnati,  and  sold  under  the  authority  of  the  Association  ;  also, 
from  the  sale  of  u  Personal  Reminiscences  of  Gen.  Lee"  by 
Rev.  J.  W.  Jones,  D.  D.,  a  part  of  the  proceeds  of  which  book 
were  turned  over  to  the  Executive  Committee. 

An  act  incorporating  the  Association  had  been  passed  by  the 
Virginia  Legislature  and  approved  January  14,  1871.  By  this 
it  was  enacted,  "  That  Win.  N.  Fendleton,  F.  W.  M.  Eolliday, 

C.  S.  Venable,  J.  W.  Massie,  Charles  A.  Davidson,  Win.  Me- 
Laughlin,  J.  B.  Dorman,  Win.  Allan,  Win.  P.  Johnston,  J.  C. 
Boude,  J.  J.  White,  A.  Graham,  Jr.,  Wm.  Terry,  Wm.  A. 
Anderson,  John  S.  Mosby,  John  Echols,  Thos.  S.  Flournoy, 
Robert  Stiles,  James  K.  Edmondson,  and  such  other  persons 
as  they  shall  associate  with  them,  be  and  they  are  hereby  incor 
porated  by  the  name  and  style  of  The  Lee  Memorial  Associa 
tion."     The  usual  corporate  powers  were  conferred  upon  them, 
and  the  officers  of  the  corporation  were  to  be   "a  president, 
fifteen  vice-presidents,  a  secretary,  a  treasurer,  and  an  execu 
tive  committee  of  nineteen  membors."     The  persons  named 
above  were  declared  the  Executive  Committee,  with  full  powers 
to  appoint  officers  and  till  vacancies. 

The  Association  organized  under  the  charter  May  31,  1873. 
At  this  meeting  Gen.  Jos.  E.  Johnston  was  elected  President 
of  the  Association  to  succeed  Gen.  John  C.  Breckenridge,  wrho 
had  died.  Col.  Bolivar  Christian  and  Capt.  Walter  Bowie  were 
elected  members  of  the  Executive  Committee  in  place  of  Col. 
J.  W.  Massie  (deceased)  and  of  Col.  John  S.  Mosby  (unable  to 
serve).  Gen.  Pendleton  was  elected  Chairman  of  the  Execu 
tive  Committee,  C.  M.  Figgat,  Esq.,  Treasurer,  and  Capt.  C. 
A.  Davidson,  Secretary.  Subsequently  the  Rev.  J.  W.  Jones, 

D.  D.,  was  made  a  member  of  the  Executive  Committee  in 
place  of  Major  Robt.  Stiles. 


The  funds  contributed  up  to  this  time  were  sufficient  to  jus 
tify  the  committee  in  ordering  the  completion  of  the  figure  in 
marble,  and  in  July,  1873,  the  artist  was  instructed  to  go  for 
ward  and  finish  his  task. 

On  April  1,  1875,  Mr.  Valentine  reported  the  work  done, 
and  the  Association  took  steps  to  have  the  monument  brought 
to  Lexington.  At  this  time  the  students  of  Richmond  Col 
lege  made  application  for  the  "privilege  of  taking  charge  of 
the  monument  when  it  is  sent  up  to  Lexington,  and  bearing 
the  expenses  of  its  transportation."  This  kind  and  courteous 
proposal  was  cordially  accepted  by  the  Executive  Committee, 
and  the  monument  was  brought  by  canal  from  Richmond  un 
der  an  escort  of  the  students  of  Richmond  College.  The 
escort  was  composed  of  Messrs.  J.  T.  E.  Thornhill,  W.  M. 
Turpin,  R.  II.  Pitt  A.  M.  Harris,  II.  C.  Smith  and  J.  W. 
Martin,  of  Virginia ;  S.  S.  Woodward,  of  JS~ew  Jersey ;  R.  T. 
Hanks,  of  Alabama,  and  C.  N.  Donaldson,  of  South  Carolina. 
As  the  figure  was  being  taken  from  the  artist's  studio  to  the 
boat  landing  in  Richmond,  on  April  13,  a  large  number  of  the 
citizens  of  Richmond,  headed  by  the  students  of  Richmond 
College  and  the  First  Virginia  Regiment,  followed  in  proces 
sion  to  honor  the  memory  of  Lee.  The  monument  reached 
Lexington  April  17.  1875.  Mr.  Thornhill,  in  appropriate 
terras,  delivered  it  to  the  committee,  on  whose  behalf  ex-Go v. 
John  Letcher  responded.  Addresses  were  also  made  on  this 
occasion  by  Lt.  Gen.  Early  and  Col.  W.  Preston  Johnston. 
The  monument  was  temporarily  stored  in  a  room  upon  the 
grounds  of  Washington  and  Lee  University,  and  confided,  for 
the  time,  to  the  guardianship  of  the  students  of  that  institution. 

When  the  completion  of  the  figure  had  been  assured,  the 
Executive  Committee  turned  their  attention  to  providing  a 
suitable  mausoleum  in  which  it  might  be  placed.  Gen.  R.  D. 
Lilly  was  appointed  agent  to  collect  funds  for  this  purpose  in 
the  winter  of  1874-5.  Through  his  efforts  a  handsome  sum 
was  realized,  and  in  February,  1875,  a  committee  was  appoint 
ed  to  invite  from  architects  designs  for  a  suitable  mausoleum. 


The  chairman  of  this  committee,  Prof.  J.  J.  White,  devoted 
much  time  and  labor  to  conferences  and  correspondence  with 
eminent  architects  on  this  subject ;  and  many  suggestions  were 
proposed  to  the  committee.  Prominent  among  these  was  a 
design  kindly  presented  in  December,  1875,  by  Mr.  J.  L. 
Smithmeyer,  of  Washington,  which  seemed  to  the  Executive 
Committee  to  be  marked  by  such  taste  and  beauty  that  it  was 
determined  to  adopt  it  if  the  estimated  cost  should  be  found 
not  greater  than  the  sum  the  Association  might  expect  to  re 
alize  from  contributions  within  a  reasonable  time.  It  was 
found,  however,  (in  August,  1876,)  when  the  plans  and  estimates 
were  fully  made,  that  the  cost  of  this  building  would  be  $45,- 
000,  which  the  committee  deemed  to  be  far  in  excess  of  their 
probable  resources.  Meantime  donations  had  come  in  from 
various  places.  The  ladies  of  Baltimore  sent,  in  May,  1875, 
$1,319.82,  the  result  of  an  entertainment  given  by  them.  Sub 
sequently  there  came  from  Charleston,  S.  C.,  $1,167.11,  and 
from  Xew  Orleans,  $1,548,  from  Mobile,  $539.65,  and  valua 
ble  donations  from  Washington,  D.  C.,  Staunton,  Ya.,  and 
Camden,  S.  C.  A  handsome  contribution  (over  $500)  came 
from  Texas,  where  Mr.  J.  S.  Sullivan,  of  Galveston,  displayed 
great  and1  efficient  interest  in  the  matter.  The  committee  were 
also  indebted  to  Cyrus  H.  McCormick,  Esq..  of  Chicago,  for 
8500,  and  to  W.  A.  Stuart,  Esq.,  of  Saltvillc,  Ya.,  for  $100,  as 
well  as  to  many  other  gentlemen  for  smaller  sums.  In  the 
summer  of  1876  it  seemed  to  the  Executive  Committee,  from 
their  progress  so  far,  that  they  might  expect  the  contributions 
for  a  mausoleum  to  reach  an  aggregate  of  $10,000  or  $15^000, 
but  not  more.  They  therefore  laid  aside  Mr.  Smithmeyer's 
plan  and  directed  their  committee  to  select  one  more  in  ac 
cordance  with  their  means. 

A  year  now  passed,  and  in  May,  1877,  J.  Crawford  Neilson, 
Esq.,  a  leading  architect  of  Baltimore,  offered  to  furnish  a  de 
sign  for  the  mausoleum.  Mr.  Neilson's  kind  offer  was  accept 
ed  and  he  was  invited  to  visit  Lexington.  After  full  confer 
ence  and  investigation  Mr.  Xeilson  proposed  as  the  design  for 
the  mausoleum  a  rectangular  apse  to  be  placed  in  the  rear  of 


10 

the  chapel  of  the  University,  where  General  Lee  was  buried. 
His  plan  was  approved  and  adopted  by  the  Association.  As 
described  at  the  time,  it  "  consists  of  a  fire  proof  apse,  an  ad 
dition  to  the  rear  of  the  chapel,  conforming  in  material  and  de 
sign  to  the  chapel  itself.  The  lower  story  is  a  crypt  of  massive 
stone  masonry,  and  the  superstructure  is  built  of  brick.  The 
interior  is  encrusted  with  brick  and  Cleveland  stone,  of  sub 
dued  tints,  and  is  lighted  from  above.  The  whole  constitutes 
a  solemn  and  tender  memorial  of  the  warrior  who  rests  in 
peace  beneath,  surrounded  by  the  ashes  of  those  who  were 
dearest  on  earth." 

The  ceremonies  of  laying  the  corner-stone  took  place  on 
November  29,  1878.  On  this  occasion  Prof.  J.  J.  White  made 
a  statement  of  the  work  of  the  Association,  and  then  introduced 
U.  S.  Senator  R.  E.  Withers,  who  delivered  an  eloquent  ad 
dress.  After  this,  Gen.  Jos.  E.  Johnston,  the  President  of  the 
Association,  assisted  by  the  Hon.  J.  Randolph  Tucker,  pro 
ceeded  to  lay  the  corner-stone.  This  is  on  the  northeast  corner 
of  the  building,  about  ten  feet  above  the  ground. 

In  February,  1879,  the  Association  lost  by  death  Capt.  C.  A. 
Davidson,  its  secretary,  and  one  of  the  most  active  and  efficient 
members  of  the  Executive  Committee.  His  contributions  of 
time  and  money  to  the  Association  had  been  very  liberal,  his 
labors  in  its  behalf  earnest  and  useful,  and  these  had  extended 
over  the  entire  period  from  its  organization  to  his  death.  A. 
T.  Barclay,  ensign  4th  Ya.  Regiment,  was  elected  to  fill  the 
vacancy  thus  caused  in  the  Executive  Committee,  and  Capt. 
J.  C.  Boude  was  appointed  secretary. 

In  January,  1879,  a  statement  of  the  condition  of  the  work 
was  prepared  by  Col.  W.  Preston  Johnston,  and  published,  and 
additional  subscriptions  were  asked  for  to  complete  it.  Among 
the  generous  responses  was  that  of  W.  W.  Corcoran,  Esq.,  who 
having  heretofore  given  $1,000  for  the  figure,  now  added  $1,000 
for  the  mausoleum.  Moro  Philips,  Esq.,  of  Philadelphia, 
donated  $500,  and  Geo.  W.  Childs,  Esq.,  of  Philadelphia,  W. 
C.  Rives,  Esq.,  and  F.  R.  Rivers,  Esq.,  of  New  York,  Robt. 
Garrett,  Esq.,  of  Baltimore,  Hon.  Win.  Milnes,  Hon.  J.  R. 


11 

Tucker,  Prof.  C.  A.  Graves,  Jno.  D.  Sterrett,  Esq.,  and  Col.  J. 
D.  H.  Ross,  of  Virginia,  and  Col.  R.  G.  Cole,  of  Georgia,  each 
$100.  Several  of  the  resident  members  of  the  Executive  Com 
mittee  had  each  contributed  previously  $100.  A  considerable 
amount  was  added  by  means  of  musical  entertainments  kindly 
given  by  the  ladies  of  Lexington,  under  the  direction  of  Mrs. 
Judge  McLaughlin.  Additions  were  also  made  to  the  funds 
through  some  entertainments  given  at  different  places  by  Profs. 
Cromwell  and  Wheeler. 

The  building  of  the  mausoleum  was  carried  forward  during 
1879  and  I860,  but  the  funds  of  the  Association  became  ex 
hausted  before  the  iron  roof  and  the  interior  were  complete. 

In  the  spring  of  1882  the  Association  made  a  proposition  to 
the  trustees  of  Washington  and  Lee  University,  on  the  grounds 
of  which  the  mausoleum  stands,  offering  to  transfer  the  build 
ing  and  monument  to  them  in  perpetual  trust  upon  their  com 
pleting  the  mausoleum.  From  a  statement  embodied  in  this 
proposition,  it  appeared  that  the  Association  had  collected  and 
expended  between  $23,000  and  $24,000  upon  the  figure  and 
mausoleum,  and  that  $5,000  were  needed  in  addition  to  com 
plete  the  entire  work.  This  proposal  was  accepted  by  the 
trustees  of  the  University  on  April  11,  1882,  and  the  necessary 
appropriation  made.  The  agreement  provided:  "That  upon 
the  completion  of  the  mausoleum  and  its  inauguration  under 
the  auspices  of  this  Association  the  title  to,  and  the  care  and 
custody  of,  both  the  mausoleum  and  the  marble  statue  of 
General  Lee  shall  be  vested  in  the  corporation  of  Washington 
and  Lee  Universit}T,  upon  the  sacred  trust  that  the  mausoleum 
shall  be  preserved  as  a  perpetual  place  of  sepulture  for  the  re 
mains  of  Gen.  R.  E.  Lee,  and  of  Mrs.  Lee,  and  of  such  other 
members  of  their  family  as  it  maybe  the  pleasure  of  the  family 
to  have  interred  there,  and  that  the  building  and  statue  shall 
receive  from  the  authorities  of  the  University  such  care  and 
attention  from  time  to  time  as  shall  be  needful  for  their  preser 
vation  ;  and  upon  the  further  trust  that  neither  the  mausoleum, 
nor  the  ground  upon  which  it  is  erected,  nor  the  statue  and 
appurtenances  of  the  mausoleum,  shall  ever  be  in  any  way,  or 


to  any  extent,  liable  for  any  claim  against,  or  debt  of  said  Uni 
versity,  or  be  charged  with  any  mortgage,  deed  of  trust,  or 
other  encumbrance." 

The  Executive  Committee  of  the  Lee  Memorial  Association 
thus  finally  secured  the  completion  of  their  labor  of  love.  For 
twelve  years  it  had  been  in  progress.  Many  doubts  had  at 
times  discouraged,  many  difficulties  had  delayed  them,  but  the 
satisfaction  now  derived  from  a  certainty  of  success  more  than 
compensated  for  all  these.  Measures  were  taken  for  the  com 
pletion  of  the  building  and  the  placing  of  the  figure,  and  the 
28th  of  June,  1883.  was  selected  as  the  day  for  unveiling  it  to 
the  public. 

In  accordance  with  a  long  cherished  design,  the  Hon.  Jeffer 
son  Davis,  the  former  President  of  the  Confederate  States,  was 
invited  to  deliver  on  that  day  an  address  upon  General  Lee's 
military  career.  The  Hon.  Jno.  W.  Daniel,  of  Virginia,  was 
invited  to  deliver,  on  the  same  occasion,  an  address  on  General 
Lee's  life  and  character  as  a  citizen  and  civilian.  Ex-President 
Davis,  though  deeply  interested  in  the  occasion  and  anxious  to 
do  all  in  his  power  to  honor  the  memory  of  Lee,  was  finally 
forced  by  advancing  years  and  precarious  health  to  decline,  and 
to  Major  Daniel  was  committed  the  whole  of  the  splendid 
theme. 

The  mausoleum  was  complete,  the  monument  had  been  put 
in  place,  and  the  committee  looked  forward  with  pleasure  to 
the  day  which  should  witness  the  end  of  their  work  and  the 
unveiling  of  the  figure  to  the  public.  Ere  this  day  arrived, 
however,  their  venerable  chairman,  Gen.  W.  N.  Pendleton, 
was  summoned  to  join  his  great  commander.  His  death  on 
January  15, 1883,  closed  a  long  and  distinguished  career  of  hon 
orable  service  to  his  generation,  both  in  war  and  peace.  He 
acted  as  Chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  this  Associ 
ation,  from  its  organization,  for  more  than  twelve  years,  and 
was  most  zealous  and  active  in  promoting  its  objects.  The 
various  relations  in  which  he  ha^  stood  to  General  Lee,  inten 
sified  his  interest  in  the  purposes  of  the  Association,  and  no 
one  worked  more  earnestly  for  their  attainment. 


13 

Judge  Wm.  McLaughlin  was  elected  chairman  to  fill  the 
place  left  vacant  by  the  death  of  General  Pendleton. 

The  final  arrangements  having  been  completed  under  the 
supervision  of  the  architect,  Mr.  Neilson,  arid  the  artist,  Mr. 
Valentine,  the  monument  was  formally  transferred  to  the  As 
sociation  by  Mr.  Valentine  on  May  7,  1883,  and  was  accepted 
on  their  behalf  by  the  Hon.  W.  A.  Anderson,  who  in  fitting 
terms  gave  expression  to  the  appreciation  and  admiration  felt 
by  all  present  as  they  looked  upon  the  beautiful  creation  of  the 
genius  of  Valentine  and  realized  the  perfection  of  the  arrange 
ments  made  by  the  skill  and  taste  of  Mr.  Xeilson  for  its  pre 
servation  and  display. 

The  dimensions  of  the  mausoleum  on  the  ground  plan  are 
31x36  feet.  The  lower  story,  which  is  constructed  of  coraline 
limestone  to  correspond  with  the  basement  of  the  chapel,  is  a 
crypt  containing  cells  or  receptacles  for  twenty-eight  bodies. 
Three  of  these  contain  the  ashes  of  Gen.  II.  E.  Lee,  Mrs.  Mary 
Custis  Lee,  arid  Miss  Agnes  Lee.  Ad  joining  the  crypt,  but 
underneath  the  chapel,  is  the  room  used  as  an  office  by  General 
Lee  during  the  later  years  of  his  presidency  of  Washington 
College,  which  is  preserved  as  he  left  it  on  the  day  he  was 
taken  ill. 

The  chamber  containing  the  monument  is  directly  over  the 
crypt  and  is  of  brick  like  the  corresponding  part  of  the  chapel. 
"  The  floor  of  the  chamber  is  tessellated  with  white-veined 
marble  and  encaustic  tiles.  The  walls  consist  of  panels  of 
grayish  Indiana  marble  enframed  in  dark  Baltimore  pressed 
brick,  and  surmounted  by  semicircular  compartments  which 
can  be  used  for  lasso-rilievo  medallions.  In  otic  of  these  com 
partments,  immediately  facing  the  chapel,  is  inscribed  the 
name  of  General  Lee,  together  with  the  dates  of  his  birth  and 
death.  Immediately  around  the  base  of  the  sarcophagus  is  a 
border  of  dark  tiling.  The  tessellated  floor  is  on  the  level  of 
the  platform  of  the  chapel,  which  is  raised  three  feet  above 
the  floor  of  the  audience  chamber. 

u  The  figure  and  couch,  which   are  of  statuary  marble,  are 


u 

mounted  on  a  sarcophagus  simple  almost  to  severity  in  its 
order,  and  which  rests  on  a  granite  base  course.  The  sides  of 
the  sarcophagus  are  composed  of  two  marble  panels  each,  the 
space  between  the  panels  bearing,  in  basso-rilievo,  on  the  one 
side  the  Lee  coat  of  arms,  and  on  the  other  the  arms  of  Vir 
ginia.  The  head  and  foot  consist  of  one  panel  each,  the  former 
being  ornamented  by  a  simple  cross,  the  latter  bearing  the 
legend : 

ROBERT  EDWARD  LEE. 

BORN 
January  19, 1807; 

DIED 
October  12, 1870. 

"  The  figure  is  over  life  size,  and  rests  upon  a  heavily  draped 
couch  in  an  attitude  of  easy  repose,  the  head  being  elevated  to 
a  natural  position,  with  the  face  turned  slightly  to  the  right. 
The  feet  are  lightly  crossed.  The  right  forearm  lies  across  the 
breast — the  hand  holding  by  simple  weight  the  blanket  which 
covers  the  lower  part  of  the  body — while  the  left  arm  is  fully 
extended  along  the  couch,  this  hand  holding  the  hilt  of  a 
sword."  The  contour  of  the  limbs  is  easily  discerned  through 
the  covering  which  falls  over  the  lower  part  of  the  body. 

An  anti-chamber  connects  the  monument  chamber  with  the 
chapel  and  is  separated  from  the  former  by  iron  doors.  A 
large  arched  opening,  heavily  curtained,  leads  from  the  chapel 
into  this  anti-chamber.  The  monument  is  so  placed  and  the 
light,  which  falls  from  the  roof,  so  arranged,  that  when  the 
curtains  are  drawn  and  the  iron  doors  open,  the  figure  can  be 
seen  from  nearly  every  part  of  the  floor  and  galleries  of  the 
chapel. 

The  28th  of  June,  the  day  for  the  public  opening  of  the 
mausoleum,  was  the  day  after  the  Commencement  of  Wash 
ington  and  Lee  University,  the  exercises  of  which  had  already 
drawn  many  persons  to  Lexington.  In  addition  to  these  a 
much  larger  concourse'of  ex-Confederate  soldiers  gathered  from 
every  quarter  on  the  day  itself.  All  old  Confederates  and  all 
admirers  of  General  Lee  were  invited  to  attend,  and  special 
cards  were  sent  to  all  former  cabinet  officers  of  the  Confederate 


15 

States,  the  general  officers  of  the  Confederate  army,  the  princi 
pal  officers  of  the  Confederate  navy,  the  members  of  General 
Lee's  staff,  the  Governors  of  the  Southern  States,  the  execu 
tive  and  judicial  officers  of  Virginia,  and  the  representatives  in 
Congress  and  the  Senators  from  Virginia.  No  effort  was 
spared  by  the  people  of  Lexington  and  Rockbridge  county  to 
honor  the  day.  Business  was  suspended,  and  the  people  devo 
ted  themselves  to  the  exercises  of  the  day,  and  to  entertaining 
tlije  crowds  that  came  from  a  distance.  Special  trains  on  the 
Richmond  &  Alleghany  and  the  Shenandoah  Valley  railroads 
brought  numbers  from  every  point  within  reach.  A  large 
number  of  the  survivors  of  the  Stonewall  Brigade,  as  well  as 
of  other  commands  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  were 
present.  Prominent  among  those  on  the  ground  were  the 
Maryland  Line,  consisting  of  the  survivors  of  the  soldiers  and 
sailors  of  that  State,  who  had  served  in  the  Confederate  army 
and  navy.  Besides  residents  of  the  town  and  county,  there 
were  present  among  the  distinguished  persons  from  a  distance, 
Gen.  Wade  Hampton,  Gen.  J.  A.  Early,  Gen.  Fitz.  Lee,  Gen. 
W.  H.  F.  Lee,  Gen.  Wm.  Terry,  Gen.  Geo.  II.  Steuart,  Gen. 
M.  D.  Corse,  Gen.  R.  D.  Lilly,  Col.  Wm.  Norris,  Chief  of  the 
Confederate  Signal  Bureau,  Col.  H.  E.  Peyton  and  Col.  T.  M. 
R.  Talcott,  of  General  Lee's  Staff,  Col.  W/H.  Palmer,  of  Gen. 
A.  P.  Hill's  Staff,  Capt.  R.  E.  Lee,  Capt.  J.  H.  II.  Figgat, 
Maj.  E.  L.  Rogers,  Judge  H.  W.  Bruce,  Judge  J.  H.  Fulton, 
Hon.  C.  R.  Breckinridge  of  Arkansas,  Father  Ryan,  Rev.  Dr. 
Alexander,  Leigh  Robinson,  Esq.,  John  J.  Williams,  Esq.,  C. 
W.  Button,  Esq.,  and  D.  Gardner  Tyler,  Esq.  Mrs.  Gen. 
Stonewall  Jackson,  Mrs.  Gen.  J.  E.  B.  Stewart,  Mrs.  Gen. 
Geo.  E.  Picket*  and  Mrs.  Carlisle  (formerly  Mrs.  Gen.  Geo.  B. 
Anderson),  were  also  present.  The  venerable  philanthropist, 
W.  W.  Corcoran,  Esq,,  of  Washington,  and  the  venerable  ex- 
Gov.  Wm.  Smith,  of  Virginia,  honored  the  occasion  by  their 
presence. 

In  the  morning  a  procession  was  formed  under  General 
Hampton  as  chief  marshall,  which  visited  the  grave  of  Stone 
wall  Jackson  in  the  Lexington  Cemetery.  Here  were  seen 


16 

many  touching  evidences  of  the  devotion  of  his  people  to  this 
great  soldier.  The  soldiers  of  the  Maryland  Line,  under  Gen. 
G.  H.  Steuart,  who  had  shared  in  many  of  Jackson's  cam 
paigns,  brought  a  handsome  bronze  tablet  inscribed  with  the 
arms  of  Maryland,  which  they  placed  at  the  head  of  his  grave. 
The  grave  itself  was  covered  with  flowers  and  immortelles 
placed  there  by  a  number  of  ladies  under  the  direction  of  Miss 
Edmonia  Waddell.  The  railing  around  it  was  similarly  deco 
rated,  and  at  each  corner  was  a  shield  surrounded  by  an  evej-- 
green  wreath,  and  containing  a  motto  furnished  by  Mrs.  Mar 
garet  J.  Preston.  These  mottoes  were  : 

1.  "  Faith  that  could  not  fail  nor  yield, 
"Was  the  legend  of  his  shield." 

"Port  Republic." 

2.  "  From  the  land  for  which  he  bled, 
Honor  to  the  warrior  dead." 

"Manassas," 

3.  "  From  the  field  of  death  and  fame. 
Borne  upon  his  shield  he  came." 

"  Chancellorsville." 

1    "  In  the  Valley  let  me  lie, 
Underneath  God's  open  sky." 

"Lexington." 

More  precious  still  was  the  silent  tear  which  forced  its  way 
to  the  eye  of  many  an  old  soldier  as  the  green  grave  brought 
the  scenes  of  twenty  years  ago  before  his  sight.  Among  the 
beautiful  incidents  of  the  day  was  the  following  :  The  daugh 
ter  of  Ex-President  Davis,  Miss  Winnie  Davis,  had  sent  to 
General  Early  two  floral  designs  composed  entirely  of  immor 
telles  and  made  to  represent  the  Confederate  battle  flag.  They 
were  exquisite  in  design  and  finish.  One  was  intended  for  the 
grave  of  Lee  and  the  other  for  that  of  Jackson.  General  Early 
selected  Miss  Carrie  W.  Daniel,  the  little  ten-year-old  daughter 
of  the  orator  of  the  day,  to  place  the  tribute  upon  Jackson's 
grave.  The  tomb  of  Lee  had  been  beautifully  decorated  with 
evergreens  and  flowers  by  a  committee  of  the  ladies  of  Lex 
ington  under  the  direction  of  Mrs.  Gen.  Edwin  G.  Lee.  Amid 
these  decorations  was  placed  the  Confederate  battle  flag  in  im 
mortelles.  After  the  ceremonies  of  the  day  were  over,  many 
a  bronzed  and  gray-headed  soldier  might  have  been  seen  culling 


17 

some  of  these  beautiful  immortelles  from  the  graves  of  Lee 
and  Jackson  to  commit  as  a  sacred  memento  to  the  keeping  of 
his  children. 

The  procession  returned  from  the  cemetery  to  the  grounds 
of  Washington  and  Lee  University,  where  in  fropt  of  the 
chapel  a  stand  and  seats  had  been  placed  for  the  accommoda 
tion  of  the  audience  and  speaker.  The  day  was  a  propitious 
one.  It  \vras  rainless,  cool  and  bright.  By  11  o'clock  a  mass 
of  from  8,000  to  10,000  people  filled  the  grounds.  As  many 
of  them  as  could  get  within  sound  of  the  orator's  voice  gath 
ered  about  the  stand,  and  listened  with  absorbed  attention.  In 
the  absence  of  Gen.  Jos.  E.  Johnston,  who  was  detained  at 
home  by  serious  illness,  Lt.-General  Early,  the  first  Vice-Presi- 
dent  of  the  Association,  presided.  After  prayer  by  the  Rev. 
R.  J.  McBryde,  Gen.  Early  introduced  Maj.  Daniel,  who  for 
three  hours  held  his  audience  by  the  spell  of  his  eloquence, 
moving  it  now  to  applause,  and  now  to  tears.  At  the  close  of 
the  speech,  Gen.  Early  called  upon  Father  Ryan  to  recite  his 
poem,  "  The  Sword  of  Lee."  As  the  poet's  voice  gradually 
rose  and  spread  over  the  throng  the  intense  emotion  with  which 
his  form  and  his  words  were  filled  spread  too,  and  fairly  thrilled 
the  great  audience. 

The  moment  for  the  unveiling  of  the  figure  was  then  an 
nounced  by  a  salute  fired  by  the  survivors  of  the  "  Rockbridge 
Artillery,"  who  used  for  the  purpose  two  guns  which  had  con 
stituted  a  part  of  their  armament  at  the  first  battle  of  Manas- 
sas.  These  guns  were  part  of  the  cadet  battery  used  by 
Stonewall  Jackson  when  a  professor  at  the  Virginia  Military 
Institute,  and  are  now  again  in  the  keeping  of  that  Institution. 
Some  fifty  of  the  former  members  of  this  famous  artillery  com 
pany  had  assembled  for  the  occasion,  and  under  Col.  Win.  T. 
Poague,  who  had  long  bqen  their  captain,  fora  few  moments 
resumed  their  former  organization  and  duties.  What  memo 
ries  of  the  past,  what  deeds  of  daring,  and  what  days  of  toil, 
what  moving  incidents  of  camp  and  field  did  the  sound  of 
those  guns  recall  as  those  old  soldiers  looked  into  the  faces  or 
grasped  the  hands  they  had  not  seen  or  felt  for  eighteen  years ! 


18 

As  the  guns  opened  fire  the  chapel  and  mausoleum  were 
thrown  open,  the  figure  was  unveiled  by  Miss  Julia  Jackson, 
(daughter  of  Stonewall  Jackson.)  and  the  vast  throng  began  to 
move  through  the  building  to  view  it.  For  many  hours  the 
current  continued  its  steady  flow,  and  indeed  only  ceased  at 
nightfall.  Meantime  the  hospitable  town  and  county  was  en 
tertaining  the  crowd  of  strangers.  The  houses  of  citizens  of 
the  town  were  everywhere  thrown  open,  and  handsome  enter 
tainments  were  provided  at  many  of  them.  In  addition  to  this, 
a  lunch,  provided  by  the  citizens  of  the  county  and  town,  was 
served  on  the  University  grounds  to  several  thousand  people. 

The  evening  fell  upon  a  day  forever  marked  in  the  annals  of 
Lexington.  It  was  felt  by  all  that  Valentine's  chisel  had  cre 
ated  a  worthy  memorial  of  Lee,  and  that  Daniel,  in  words  not 
less  fitting  had  committed  it  to  the  keeping  of  the  future. 

With  this  day  closed  the  active  labors  of  the  Lee  Memorial 
Association.  It  only  remained  for  them  to  complete  the 
transfer  of  the  mausoleum  and  monument  to  the  perpetual  care 
of  Washington  and  Lee  University,  and  to  return  thanks  to 
the  generous  friends,  who  had  by  their  contributions,  rendered 
possible  a  noble  work.  They  placed  on  record,  in  fitting  terms, 
their  high  appreciation  of  the  valuable  services  (services  ren 
dered  as  a  labor  of  love)  of  their  treasurer,  C.  M.  Figgat,  Esq.; 
of  the  skill  and  taste  of  J.  Crawford  Neilson,  Esq.,  who  placed 
his  architectural  experience  gratuitously  at  the  service  of  the 
Association  in  "designing  and  superintending  the  construc 
tion  of  the  mausoleum  "  ;  of  the  splendid  success  of  the  artist's 
work,  and  of  the  oration  of  Major  Daniel,  u  which  can  receive 
no  higher,  no  juster  commendation,  than  that  it  is  worthy  of  its 
great  subject." 

A  great  name  is  passing  into  history.  As  the  smoke  of  con 
flict  and  passion  passes  away  the  world  is  beginning  to  recog 
nize  the  outlines  of  a  character  in  which  capacity  of  the  first 
rank  was  harmoniously  united  with  virtue  of  the  highest  order ;  a 
character  equally  grand  in  victory  and  defeat.  The  Lee  Memorial 
Association  have  not  looked  upon  their  work  as  needful  to 


19 

• 

preserve  the  fame  or  extend  the  influence  of  Lee,  but  have 
deemed  it  both  a  duty  and  a  privilege  to  testify  to  coming  gen 
erations  the  genuine  affection,  admiration  arid  homage  with 
which  his  countrymen  and  contemporaries  regard  the  man, 
who  seems  to  them  the  foremost  of  his  time  in  those  great 
qualities  which  best  deserve  the  respect  and  veneration  of 
mankind. 


PROGRAMME  OF  CEREMONIES 

AT  THE 

Inauguration  of  the  Lee  Mausoleum, 

LEXINGTON,  VIRGINIA,  JUNE  28,  1883. 


The  following  gentlemen  were  requested  to  act  as  Marshals 
and  assistant  Marshals,  and  to  aid  in  the  orderly  conduct  of  the 
ceremonies  of  the  day  ;  and  all  persons  were  requested  to  re 
spect  their  authorit}*  as  such  : 

Chief  Marshal — Lieutenant-General  Wade  Hampton. 

Marshals— Gen.  R.  D.  Lilly,  Col.  W.  T.  Poague,  Col.  John 
A.  Gibson,  Col.  J.  D.  H.  Boss,  Maj.  Charles  F.  Jordan,  Maj. 
S.  W.  Paxton,  Mr.  John  T.  Dunlop,  Mr.  W.  F.  Johnston,  Mr. 
Wra.  M.  Dunlap,  Mr.  Harry  E.  Moore,  Mr.  W.  B.  F.  Leech, 
Mr.  S.  H.  Letcher,  Mr.  J.  E.  McCauley,  Capt,  J.  H.  H.  Figgat, 
Capt.  T.  C.  Morton,  Capt.  Jas.  A.  Strain,  Capt.  J.  G.  Updike, 
Dr.  Z.  J.  Walker,  Capt.  William  Wade,  Capt.  J.  P.  Moore, 
Lieut.  J.  H.  B.  Jones,  Mr.  R.  T.  McLeod,  Capt.  W.  F.  Pier- 
son,  Mr.  W.  B.  Poindexter. 

Chief  of  Assistant  Marshals — Mr.  E.  C.  Day,  of  Kentucky. 

Assistant  Marshals — Mr.  J.  M.  Becker,  Pennsylvania  ;  Mr. 
R.  Godson,  Kentucky ;  Mr.  L.  L.  Campbell,  Virginia,  Mr.  II. 
D.  Flood,  Virginia;  Mr.  J.  T.  Bugg,  Louisiana;  Mr.  G. 
O'Bieme,  West  Virginia;  Mr.  II.  McCmm,  Virginia. 

ORDER  OF   EXERCISES. 
9:30  A.  M.  to  10:30  A.  M. — Decoration   of  the  Tomb  of  Lee 

and  Grave  of  Jackson. 
10:30  A.  M. — Music  on  the  Grounds  of  Washington  and  Lee 

University  by  the  Virginia  Military  Institute  band  and 

visiting  bands. 
11  A.  M. — Prayer  by  the  Rev.  R.  J.  McBryde,  Hector  of  Grace 

Memorial  Church. 


21 

MUSIC. 

11:15  A.  M. — Oration  by  Maj.  John  W.  Daniel. 

MUSIC. 
-2  P.  M. — Figure  of  Lee  unveiled,  monumental  chamber  thrown 

o  - 

open,  and  procession  around  the  Figure. 

3  P.  M. — Collation  provided  by  the  citizens  of  Rockbridge 
and  Lexington  for  Confederate  veterans  and  military 
companies. 

Seats  will  be  set  apart  and  reserved  in  front  of  the  stand  for 
military  companies,  societies,  and  organized  bodies  of  veterans, 
of  whose  coming  the  Committee  may  have  due  notice. 

The  platform  to  the  right  of  the  stand  will  be  set  apart  for 

representatives  of  the  press.     The  other  two  small  platforms 

are  for  the  musicians  of  the  V.  M.  I.  band  and  visiting  bands. 

The  seats  upon  the  main  stand  will  be  reserved  for : 

I.  Generals  of  the  Confederate  States  Army  and  officers  of 

the  Confederate  States  Navy. 

II.  Officers  of  the  general  Government  of  the  Confederate 
States. 

III.  The  Governor  of  Virginia  and  members  of  the  present 

State  Government. 

IV.  Governors  of  any  of  the  States  of  the  Union,  members 

of  the  Senate  or  Bouse  of  Representatives  of  the  Uni 
ted  States. 
Y.  Members  of    the  Board  of;   Trustees  and  Faculty  of 

Washington  and  Lee  University. 
VI.  Members  of  the  Board  of   Visitors  and  Faculty  of  the 

Virginia  Military  Institute. 
VII.  Specially  invited  guests. 
VIII.  Members  of  the  Lee  Memorial  Association. 
By  order  of  the  Executive  Committee, 

WILLIAM  MCLAUGHLIN, 

Chairman. 

WILLIAM  A.  ANDERSON, 
Chairman  of  Committee  of  Arrangements. 

JOHN  C.  BOUDE, 
Sec'y  Ex.  Coin.  Lee  Memorial  Association. 


22 

When  the  procession  had  returned  from  Jackson's  grave  to 
the  grounds  of  Washington  and  Lee  University,  and  those  form 
ing  it  had  taken  the  seats  assigned  them,  the  exercises  were 
opened  by  the  Rev.  R.  J.  McJBryde,  rector  of  Grace  Memorial 
Church,  Lexington,  Ya.,  who  offered  the  following  prayer : 

Almighty  and  Everlasting  God — the  King  of  Kings  and 
Lord  of  Lords! — our  help  in  ages  past,  our  Lope  for  years  to 
corne — to  Thee  glory  belongeth.  Thou  only  art  worthy  to  be 
praised. 

For  Thou  art  from  everlasting  to  everlasting,  Thou  art 
gracious  and  full  of  compassion  ;  Thou  art  good  to  all,  and  Thy 
tender  mercies  are  over  all  Thy  works. 

W7e  praise  Thee,  O  God ;  we  acknowledge  Thee  to  be  the 
Lord.  In  Thee  we  live  and  move,  and  have  our  being. 

We  would  render  unto  Thee  most  humble  and  hearty  thanks 
for  the  goodly  heritage  Thou  hast  given  us  in  this  land  of  civil 
and  religious  freedom,  for  the  peace  and  prosperity  within  our 
borders,  and  for  all  the  innumerable  manifestations  of  Thy 
goodness  towards  us. 

We  would  also  recognize  that  it  is  our  duty  arid  privilege  to 
begin,  continue,  and  end  all  our  works  in  Thee.  And  there 
fore  this  day,  and  upon  this  occasion,  we  would  realize  that 
"promotion  cometh  neither  from  the  East  nor  from  the  West 
nor  from  the  South.  God  is  the  judge  ;  He  putteth  down  one 
and  setteth  up  another."  Then  praise  to  Thee  alone,  thou 
Great  Creator,  for  the  leader  and  commander  of  this  people, 
whose  memory  wre  seek  to  preserve  and  whose  name  we  honor 
to  day  !  To  Thee  be  all  the  glory  for  what  he  was  and  is  to 
us.  O,  God,  Thou  wast  his  God  ;  his  soul  followed  hard  after 
Thee  ;  Thy  right  hand  upheld  him.  He  was  not  ashamed  to 
confess  the  faith  of  Christ  crucified  and  manfully  to  fight  un 
der  His  banner  against  sin,  the  world,  and  the  devil,  and  to  be 
Christ's  faithful  soldier  and  servant.  And  we  pray  Thee  that 
the  influence  of  his  life  and  the  power  of  his  example  may 
never  die  out  in  the  land.  May  a  double  portion  of  his  spirit 
fall  on  his  people,  whom  he  loved,  for  whom  he  made  such 
sacrifices,  and  for  whom  he  labored  with  unwearied  fidelity. 


May  they  reverence  Thy  name  ;  may  they  retain  Thee  in 
their  thoughts;  may  they  ever  live  in  obedience  to  Thy  laws 
as  did  Thine  honored  servant ;  may  they  follow  him  as  he  fol 
lowed  Christ ;  may  they  love  that  Word  which  he  believed, 
arid  uphold  the  faith  which  he  confessed  ;  may  the  well-being 
of  our  people  enlist  our  abilities  as  it  did  his;  may  we,  like 
him,  seek  to  make  the  world  the  better  for  our  living  in  it.  As 
he  was  "subject  to  every  ordinance  of  man  for  the  Lord's 
sake,"  so  make  us  to  be  more  and  more  a  law-abiding  people, 
in  obedience  to  Thy  will.  Give  us  a  like  patience  under  afflic 
tions,  and  a  like  cheerful  resignation  to  Thy  blessed  will,  and 
by  well-doing  "  may  we  put  to  silence  the  ignorance  of  foolish 
men." 

Regard  with  Thy  favor  and  visit  with  Thy  blessing  this  in 
stitution  of  which  he  was  the  honored  head,  and  secure  to  it 
the  patronage  needful  to  the  carrying  of  its  designs  into  good 
effect.  And  finally,  when  we  shall  have  served  Thee  in  our 
generation,  may  we,  like  him,  be  gathered  unto  our  fathers, 
having  the  testimony  of  a  good  conscience,  in  the  communion 
of  the  catholic  church,  in  the  confidence  of  a  certain  faith,  in 
the  comfort  of  a  reasonable,  religious,  and  holy  hope,  in  favor 
with  Thee  our  God,  and  in  perfect  charity  with  the  world.  All 
of  which  we  ask  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  ximen. 

GENEKAL  EARLY  then  arose  and  spoke  as  follows: 

Friends,  Comrades  and  Fellow- Citizens,  Ladles  and  Gentle 
men  : 

The  sickness  of  Gen.  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  the  distinguished 
President  of  the  Lee  Memorial  Association,  which  prevents  his 
attendance  here,  has  devolved  on  me,  as  First  Yice-President, 
the  unexpected  duty  of  presiding  on  this  occasion  ;  and  I  am 
sure  no  one  can  regret  the  cause  of  this  change  in  the  pro 
gramme  more  than  I  do. 

The  great  commander  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia 
died  on  the  12th  of  October,  1870,  and  as  soon  as  his  remains 
were  consigned  to  the  tomb,  a  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Lex 
ington  was  held,  and  steps  taken  for  the  formation  of  an  Asso- 


24 

elation  to  erect  a  monument  to  his  memory.  More  effectually 
to  carry  out  that  purpose,  an  act  of  incorporation  was  obtained 
from  the  Legislature  of  Virginia  on  the  14th  of  January,  1871, 
by  which  certain  gentlemen,  most  of  whom  were  residents  of 
Lexington,  and  such  other  persons  as  they  should  associate  with 
themselves,  were  incorporated  by  the  name  and  style  of  "  The 
Lee  Memorial  Association."  Subsequently  the  Association  was 
further  organized  by  the  appointment  of  Gen.  John  C.  Breck- 
inridge,  of  Kentucky,  who  had  been  the  last  Secretary  of  War 
of  the  Confederate  States,  as  President,  and  of  fifteen  Vice- 
Presidents,  as  also  a  Treasurer, — the  nineteen  persons  named 
in  the  act  of  incorporation,  by  the  terms  of  the  act  itself,  con 
stituting  the  Executive  Committee.  The  chairman  of  that 
Committee  was  Gen.  Wm.  JST.  Pendleton,  the  distinguished 
Chief  of  Artillery  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  and 
the  Secretary  was  Captain  Charles  A.  Davidson,  a  gallant  offi 
cer  of  the  First  Virginia  Battalion. 

The  act  of  incorporation  does  not  specify  the  place  at  which 
the  proposed  monument  should  be  erected,  nor  the  nature  of 
it;  but,  after  the  passage  of  the  act  changing  the  name  of 
Washington  College  to  that  of  Washington  and  Lee  Uni 
versity,  it  was  determined  by  the  Executive  Committee,  with 
the  sanction  of  the  authorities  of  the  University,  that  the 
monument  should  consist  of  a  Mausoleum,  attached  to  the  Uni 
versity  Chapel,  which  latter  had  been  constructed  under  the 
supervision  of  General  Lee  himself,  where  his  remains  should 
be  deposited  in  a  vault,  to  be  surmounted  by  a  recumbent  figure 
in  marble,  representing  our  great  chieftain  at  rest — it  being 
part  of  the  plan  to  provide  vaults  also  in  the  same  Mausoleum 
for  the  immediate  members  of  his  family,  especially  the  esti 
mable  and  noble  lady  who  had  been  his  partner  in  life. 

The  resident  members  of  the  Executive  Committee  pro 
ceeded  to  carry  out  this  scheme  with  great  energy  and  perse 
verance,  in  which  the  Chairman  and  Secretary  were  especially 
conspicuous.  A  distinguished  Virginia  artist  was  selected  to 
execute  in  marble  the  recumbent  figure,  and  years  ago  he  com 
pleted  his  work  in  a  manner  that  links  his  name  forever  with 
that  of  Lee* 


25 

Upon  the  death  of  General  Breckinridge,  General  Joseph 
E.  Johnston,  the  senior  surviving  officer  of  the  Confederate 
Army,  and  the  predecessor  of  General  Lee  in  command  of 
that  army,  which, 'under  the  lead  of  the  latter,  became  so  re 
nowned  as  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  was  made  the 
President. 

On  the  29th  of  November,  1878,  the  corner-stone  of  the 
Mausoleum  was  laid,  under  the  superintendence  of  a  distin 
guished  architect  of  Baltimore,  who  was  charged  writh  its  con 
struction.  The  requisite  funds  have  been  raised  by  great 
exertion,  a  large  part  having  been  contributed  in  small  sums. 
The  noble  work  has  now  been  completed,  and  we  are  as 
sembled  here  to  perform  the  crowning  act,  in  unveiling  the 
recumbent  figure  of  one  of  the  grandest  and  noblest  heroes, 
soldiers,  and  patriots,  who  have  figured  in  all  the  history  of  the 
world.  In  doing  this,  we  are  not  conferring  honor  on  the  mem 
ory  of  General  Robert  E.  Lee — we  are  merely  demonstrating 
to  the  world  that  we  were  wrorthy  to  have  been  the  followers 
and  compatriots  of  such  a  man.  Unfortunately,  neither  the 
gallant  soldier  and  Christian  gentleman,  Gen.  Pendleton,  Chair 
man  of  the  Executive  Committee,  nor  the  gallant  Davidson,  the 
efficient  Secretary  of  that  Committee,  have  survived  to  witness 
the  completion  of  the  work,  to  the  success  of  which  they  con 
tributed  so  largely. 

It  is  deeply  to  be  regretted  that  President  Davis,  who  was 
expected  to  deliver  an  address  on  this  occasion,  has  been  pre 
vented  by  circumstances  from  being  present,  but  his  lovely  and 
accomplished  young  daughter,  whose  pride  it  is  to  have  been 
born  on  the  soil  of  Virginia,  has  sent  from  his  Southern  home 
two  Confederate  flags  made  of  immortelles,  and  two  bay 
wreaths,  one  of  each  to  be  placed  on  the  tombs  of  Generals  Lee 
and  Jackson,  respectively,  as  tokens  of  her  admiration  for  their 
great  characters,  and  of  the  sympathy  of  her  family  with  us. 
There  is  also  another  whose  absence  is  to  be  deeply  regretted, 
though  he  is  nearly  within  reach  of  my  voice — I  mean  that 
war  Governor  of  Virginia,  who  conferred  upon  Generals  Lee 
and  Jackson  the  commissions  which  brought  them  into  the  ser- 


26 

vice  of  their  native  State,  in  defence  of  right,  justice,  liberty, 
and  independence ;  and  who  sustained  them  throughout, 
whether  they  were  in  the  State  or  Confederate  service,  with 
such  unswerving  fidelit}7  and  unselfish  devotion — you  must 
know  that  I  can  mean  no  other  than  John  Letcher,  with  whom 
we  all  so  heartily  sympathize  in  the  bodily  affliction  which 
alone  prevents  him  from  being  with  us. 

And  now  permit  me  to  introduce  to  you,  as  the  orator  of  the 
occasion,  Major  John  W.  Daniel,  who  needs  no  words  of 
commendation  from  me,  but  will  speak  for  himself. 

Major  Daniel  was  received  with  rounds  of  applause.  When 
tins  had  subsided  he  delivered  the  following  oration  : 

ADDRESS    OF     JOHN    W.    DANIEL,   LL.  D. 

Mr.  President,  My  Comrades  and  Countrymen : 

There  was  no  happier  or  lovelier  home  than  that  of  Colonel 
Robert  Edward  Lee,  in  the  spring  of  1861,  when  for  the  first 
time  its  threshold  was  darkened  with  the  omens  of  civil  war. 

Crowning  the  green  slopes  of  the  Virginia  Hills  that  over 
look  the  Potomac,  and  embowered  in  stately  trees,  stood  the 
venerable  mansion  of  Arlington,  facing  a  prospect  of  varied 
and  imposing  beauty.  Its  broad  porch,  and  wide-spread  wings, 
held  out  open  arms,  as  it  were,  to  welcome  the  coming  guest. 
Its  simple  Doric  columns  graced  domestic  comfort  with  a 
classic  air.  Its  halls  and  chambers  were  adorned  with  the  por 
traits  of  patriots  and  heroes^  and  with  illustrations  and  relics 
of  the  great  revolution,  and  of  the  Father  of  his  country 
And  within  and  without,  history  and  tradition  seemed  to 
breathe  their  legends  upon  a  canvass  as  soft  as  a  dream  of 
peace. 

The' noble  river,  which  in  its  history,  as  well  as  in  its  name, 
carries  us  back  to  the  days  when  the  red  man  trod  its  banks, 
sweeps  in  full  and  even  flow  along  the  forefront  of  the  land 
scape;  while  beyond  its  waters  stretch  the  splendid  avenues 
and  rise  the  gleaming  spires  of  Washington  ;  and  over  all,  the 


2T 

great  white  dome  of  the  National  Capital  looms  up  against  the 
eastern  sky,  like  a  glory  in  the  air. 

Southward  and  westward,  toward  the  blue  rim  of  the  Al!e- 
ghanie?,  roll  away  the  pine  and  oak  clad  hills,  and  the  fields  of 
the  "  Old  Dominion,"  dotted  here  and  there  with  the  homes  of 
a  people  of  simple  tastes  and  upright  minds,  renowned  for 
their  devotion  to  their  native  land,  and  for  their  fierce  love  of 
liberty  ;  a  people  who  had  drunk  into  their  souls  with  their 
mothers  milk,  that  Man  is  of  right,  and- ought  to  be,  free. 

On  the  one  hand  there  was  impressed  upon  the  most  casual 
eye  that  contemplated  the  pleasing  prospect,  the  munificence 
and  grandeur  of  American  progress,  the  arts  of  industry  and 
commerce,  and  the  symbols  of  power.  On  the  other  hand, 
Nature  seemed  to  woo  the  heart  back  to  her  sacred  haunts, 
with  vistas  of  sparkling  waters,  and  verdant  pastures,  and  many 
a  wildwood  scene ;  and  to  penetrate  its  deepest  recesses  with 
the  halcyon  charm  that  ever  lingers  about  the  thought  of 
Home. 

THE    HOST    OF    ARLINGTON. 

The  head  of  the  house  established  here  was  a  man  whom 
Nature  had  richly  endowed  with  graces  of  person,  and  high 
qualities  of  head  and  heart.  Fame  had  already  bound  his 
brow  with  her  laurel,  and  Fortune  had  poured  into  his  lap  her 
golden  horn.  Himself  a  soldier,  and  Colonel*  in  the  army  of 
the  United  States,  the  son  of  the  renowned  "  Light  Horse 
Harry  Lee,"  who  was  the  devoted  friend  and  compatriot  of 
Washington  in  the  revolutionary  struggle,  and  whose  memora 
ble  eulogy  upon  his  august  Chief ^ has  become  his  epitaph;— 
descended  indeed  from  a  long  line  of  illustrious  progenitors, 
whose  names  are  written  on  the  brightest  scrolls  of  English 
and  American  history,  from  the  conquest  of  the  Norman  at 
Hastings,  to  the  triumph  of  the  Continentals  at  Yorktown, — 
he  had  already  established  his  own  martial  fame  at  Vera  Cruz, 
Cerro  Gordo,  Contreras,  Cherubusco,  Molino  del  Rey,  Chepul- 
tepec  and  Mexico,  and  had  proved  how  little  he  depended  upon 
any  merit  but  his  own.  Such  was  his  early  distinction,  that 

Appointed  Colonel  March  10th,  1SG1. 


when  but  a  Captain,  the  Cuban  Junta  had  offered  to  make  him 
the  leader  of  their  revolutionary  movement  for  the  independ 
ence  of  Cuba  ; — a  position  which  as  an  American  officer,  he 
felt  it  his  duty  to  decline.  And  so  deep  was  the  impression 
made  of  his  genius  and  his  valor,  that  General  Scott,  Com- 
mander-in-Chief  of  the  army  in  which  he  served,  had  declared 
that  he  "  was  the  best  soldier  he  ever  saw  in  the  field,"  "  the 
greatest  military  genius  in  America,"  that  "  if  opportunity 
offered,  he  would  show  himself  the  foremost  Captain  of  his 
times,"  and  that  "if  a  great  battle  were  to  be  fought  for  the 
liberty  or  slavery  of  the  country,  his  judgment  was  that  the 
commander  should  be  Robert  Lee." 

Wedded  to  her  who  had  been  the  playmate  of  his  boyhood, 
and  who  was  worthy  in  every  relation  to  be  the  companion  of 
his  bosom,  sons  and  daughters  had  risen  up  to  call  them 
blessed,  and  there,  decorated  with  his  country's  honors  and  sur 
rounded  by  "  love,  obedience,  and  troops  of  friends,"  the  host 
of  Arlington  seemed  to  have  filled  the  measure  of  generous 
desire  with  whatever  of  fame  or  happiness  fortune  can  add  to 
virtue.  And  had  the  pilgrim  started  in  quest  of  some  happier 
spot  than  the  Yale  of  Easselas,  well  might  he  have  paused  by 
this  threshold  and  doffed  his  "  sandal  shoon." 

THE    ANTECEDENTS    OF    COLONEL    LEK. 

So  situated  was  Colonel  Lee  in  the  spring  of  1861,  upon  the 
verge  of  the  momentous  revolution,  of  which  he  became  so 
mighty  a  pillar  and  so  glorious  a  chieftain.  But  we  cannot 
estimate  the  struggle  it  cost  him  to  take  up  arms  against  the 
Union — nor  the  sacrifice  he  made,  nor  the  pure  devotion  with 
which  he  consecrated  his  sword  to  his  native  State — without 
looking  beyond  his  physical  surroundings,  and  following  fur 
ther  the  suggestions  of  his  history  and  character,  for  the  springs 
of  action  which  prompted  his  course.  Colonel  Lee  was  em 
phatically  a  Union  man  ;  and  Virginia,  to  the  crisis  of  dissolu 
tion,  was  a  Union  State.  He  loved  the  Union  with  a  soldier's 
ardent  loyalty  to  the  Government  he  served,  and  with  a  patriot's 
faith  and  hope  in  the  institutions  of  his  country.  His  ances- 


29 

tors  had  been  among  the  most  distinguished  and  revered  of  its 
founders ;  his  own  life  from  youth  upward  had  been  spent  and 
his  blood  shed  in  its  service,  and  two  of  his  sons,  following  his 
footsteps,  held  commissions  in  the  army. 

He  was  born  in  the  same  county,  and  descended  from  the 
same  strains  of  English  blood  from  which  Washington  sprang, 
and  was  united  in  marriage  with  Mary  Custis,  the  daughter  of 
his  adopted  son.  He  had  been  reared  in  the  school  of  simple 
manners  and  lofty  thoughts  which  belonged  to  the  elder  gene 
ration  ;  and  with  Washington  as  his  exemplar  of  manhood  and 
his  ideal  of  wisdom,  he  reverenced  his  character  and  fame  and 
work  with  a  feeling  as  near  akin  to  worship  as  any  that  man 
can  have  for  aught  that  is  human. 

Unlike  the  statesmen  of  the  hostile  sections,  who  were  con 
stantly  thrown  into  the  provoking  conflicts  of  political  debate, 
he  had  been  withdrawn  by  his  military  occupations  from  scenes 
calculated  to  irritate  or  chill  his  kindly  feelings  toward  the 
people  of  the  North  ;  and  on  the  contrary — in  camp,  and  field, 
and  social  circle — he  had  formed  many  ties  of  friendship  with 
its  most  esteemed  soldiers  and  citizens.  With  the  reticence 
becoming  his  military  office,  he  had  taken  no  part  in  the  con 
troversies  which  preceded  the  fatal  rupture  between  the  States 
— other  than  the  good  man's  part,  to  "  speak  the  soft  answer 
that  turns  away  wrath,"  and  to  plead  for  that  forbearance  and 
patience  which  alone  might  bring  about  a  peaceful  solution  of 
the  questions  at  issue. 

Years  of  his  professional  life  he  had  spent  in  Northern  com 
munities,  and,  always  a  close  observer  of  men  and  things,  he 
well  understood  the  vast  resources  of  that  section,  and  the 
hardy,  industrious,  and  resolute  character  of  its  people  ;  and  he 
justly  weighed  their  strength  as  a  military  power.  When  men 
spoke  of  how  easily  the  South  would  repel  invasion  he  said  : 
u  You  forget  that  we  are  all  Americans."  And  when  they 
prophesied  a  battle  and  a  peace,  he  predicted  that  it  would  take 
at  least  four  years  to  fight  out  the  impending  conflict.  None 
was  more  conscious  than  he  that  each  side  undervalued  and 
misunderstood  each  other.  He  was,  moreover,  deeply  imbued 


30 

with  the  philosophy  of  history,  and  the  course  of  its  evolutions, 
and  well  knew  that  in  an  upheaval  of  government  deplorable 
results  would  follow,  which  were  not  thought  of  in  the  begin 
ning,  or,  if  thought  of,  would  be  disavowed,  belittled  and 
deprecated.  And  eminently  conservative  in  his  cast  of  mind 
and  character,  every  bias  of  his  judgment,  as  every  tendency  of 
his  history,  filled  him  with  j-earriing  and  aspiration  for  the  peace 
of  his  country  arid  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union.  Is  it  a  won 
der,  then,  as  the  storm  of  revolution  lowered,  Colonel  Lee, 
then  with  his  regiment,  the  Second  Cavalry,  in  Texas,  wrote 
thus  to  his  son  in  January,  1861  : 

"The  South,  in  my  opinion,  has  been  aggrieved  by  the  acts 
of  the  North  as  you  say.  I  feel  the  aggression,  and  am  will 
ing  to  take  any  proper  steps  for  redress.  It  is  the  principle  I 
contend  for,  not  individual  or  private  benefit.  As  an  American 
citizen,  I  take  great  pride  in  my  country,  her  prosperity  and 
institutions,  and  would  defend  any  State  if  her  rights  were 
invaded.  But  I  can  anticipate  no  greater  calamity  for  the 
country  than  a  dissolution  of  the  Union.  It  would  be  an 
accumulation  of  all  evils  we  complain  of,  and  I  am  willing  to 
sacrifice  everything  but  honor  for  its  preservation.  I  hope, 
therefore,  that  all  constitutional  means  will  be  exhausted  before 
there  is  a  resort  to  force.  Secession  is  nothing  but  revolution. 
Still,  a  Union  that  can  only  be  maintained  by  swords  and 
bayonets,  and  in  which  strife  and  civil  war  are  to  take  the  place 
of  love  and  kindness,  has  no  charm  for  me.  I  shall  mourn  for 
my  country  and  for  the  welfare  and  progress  of  mankind.  If 
the  Union  is  dissolved,  and  the  government  is  disrupted,  I  shall 
return  to  my  native  State  and  share  the  miseries  of  my  people, 
and,  save  in  defence,  will  draw  my  sword  on  none." 

WAR. 

A  few  weeks  later  Colonel  Lee  was  ordered,  and  came  to 
Washington,  reaching  there  three  days  before  the  inauguration 
of  President  Lincoln.  At  that  time  South  Carolina,  Missis 
sippi,  Florida,  Alabama,  Georgia  and  Louisiana,  had  already 
seceded  from  the  Union,  and  the  Provisional  Government  of 
the  Confederate  States  was  in  operation  at  Montgomery. 


31 

The  Virginia  Convention  was  in  session,  but  slow  and  delib 
erate  In  its  course.  The  State  which  had  done  so  much  to 
found  the  Union  was  loth  to  assent  to  its  dissolution,  and  still 
guided  by  the  wise  counsels  of  such  men  as  Robert  E.  Scott, 
Robert  Y.  Conrad,  Jubal  A.  Early,  John  B.  Baldwin,  Samuel 
McDowell  Moore,  and  A.  II.  II.  Stuart,  she  persisted  in  efforts 
to  avert  the  calamity  of  war.  Events  followed  swiftly.  The 
Peace  Conference  had  failed.  Overtures  for  the  peaceful 
evacuation  of  Fort  Sumpter  had  likewise  failed.  On  the  13th 
of  April,  under  bombardment,  the  Federal  Commander,  Major 
Anderson,  with  its  garrison,  surrendered.  On  April  15th 
President  Lincoln  issued  his  proclamation  for  75,000  men  to 
make  war  against  the  seceded  States,  which  he  styled  :  "  Com 
binations  too  powerful  to  be  suppressed  by  the  ordinary  course 
of  judicial  proceedings."  This  proclamation  determined  Vir 
ginia's  course.  War  had  come.  Her  mediation  had  been  in 
vain.  She  was  too  noble  to  be  neutral. 

Of  the  arts  of  duplicity  she  knew  nothing  save  to  despise. 
She  must  now  level  her  guns  against  the  breasts  of  her  South 
ern  brethren,  or  make  her  own  breast  their  shield.  On  April 
17th  Virginia  answered  Mr.  Lincoln's  proclamation  with  the 
Ordinance  of  Secession,  and  like  Pallas-Athene,  "the  front 
fighter"  stepped  with  intrepid  brow  to  where,  in  conflict,  his 
tory  has  ever  found  her — to  the  front  of  war. 


Where  now  is  Robert  Lee?  On  the  border  line,  between 
two  hostile  empires,  girding  their  loins  for  as  stern  a  fight  as 
ever  tested  warriors'  steel,  he  beholds  each  beckoning  to  him 
to  lead  its  people  to  battle.  On  the  one  hand,  Virginia,  now 
in  the  fore-front  of  a  scarcely  organized  revolution,  summons 
him  to  share  her  lot  in  the  perilous  adventure.  The  young 
Confederacy  is  without  an  army.  There  is  no  navy.  There 
is  no  currency.  There  are  few  teeming  work-shops  and 
arsenals.  There  is  little  but  a  meagre  and  widely  scattered 
population,  for  the  most  part  men  of  the  field,  the  prairie,  the 
forest  and  the  mountain,  ready  to  stand  the  hazard  of  an  auda- 


32 

cious  endeavor,  to  meet  aggression  with  whatever  weapons 
freemen  can  lay  their  hands  on,  and  to  carry  high  the  banners 
of  the  free,  whatever  may  betide. 

Did  he  fail  ?  Ah,  did  he  fail  ?  His  beloved  State  would  be 
trampled  in  the  mire  of  the  ways ;  the  Confederacy  would  be 
blotted  from  the  family  of  nations, — home  and  country  would 
survive  only  in  memory  and  in  name  ;  his  people  would  be 
captives,  their  very  slaves  their  masters ;  and  he, — if  of  him 
self  he  thought  at  all, — he,  mayhap,  might  have  seen  in  the 
dim  perspective,  the  shadow  of  the  dungeon  or  the  scaffold. 

On  the  other  hand  stands  the  foremost  and  most  powerful 
Republic  of  the  earth,  rich  in  all  that  handiwork  can  fashion 
or  that  gold  can  buy.  It  is  thickly  populated.  Its  regular 
army,  and  its  myriad  volunteers,  rush  to  do  its  bidding.  Its 
navy  rides  the  Western  seas  in  undisputed  sway.  Its  treasury 
teems  with  the  sinews  of  war,  and  its  arsenals  with  weapons. 
And  the  world  is  open  to  lend  its  cheer  and  aid  and  comfort. 
Its  capital  lies  in  sight  of  his  chamber  window,  and  its  guns 
bear  on  the  portals  of  his  home.  A  messenger  comes  from  its 
President  and  from  General  Scott,  Commander-in-Chief  of  its 
army,  to  tender  him  supreme  command  of  its  forces.  Did  he 
accept  it,  and  did  he  succeed,  the  conqueror's  crown  awaits 
him,  and  win  or  lose,  he  will  remain  the  foremost  man  of  a 
great  established  nation,  with  all  honor  and  glory  that  riches 
and  office  and  power  and  public  applause  can  supply. 

Since  the  Son  of  Man  stood  upon  the  Mount,  and  saw  "all 
the  kingdoms  of  the  earth  and  the  glory  thereof"  stretched  be 
fore  him,  and  turned  away  from  them  to  the  agony  and  bloody 
sweat  of  Gethsemane,  and  to  the  Cross  of  Calvary  beyond,  no 
follower  of  the  meek  and  lowly  Saviour  can  have  undergone 
more  trying  ordeal,  or  met  it  with  higher  spirit  of  heroic  sacri 
fice. 

There  was  naught  on  earth  that  could  swerve  Robert  E.  Lee 
from  the  path  where,  to  his  clear  comprehension,  honor  and 
duty  lay.  To  the  statesman,  Mr.  Francis  Preston  Blair,  who 
brought  him  the  tender  of  supreme  command,  he  answered : 

"  Mr.  Blair,  I  look  upon  secession  as  anarchy.     If  I   owned 


33 

the  four  millions  of  slaves  in  the  South,  I  would  sacrifice  them 
all  to  the  Union.  But  how  can  I  draw  my  sword  against  Vir 
ginia?'' 

Draw  his  sword  against  Virginia?  Perish  the  thought! 
Over  all  the  voices  that  called  him  lie  heard  the  still  small  voice 
that  ever  whispers  to  the  soul  of  the  spot  that  gave  it  birth, 
and  of  her  who  gave  it  suck  ;  and  over  every  ambitious  dream, 
there  rose  the  face  of  the  angel  that  guards  the  door  of  home. 

On  the  20th  of  April,  as  soon  as  the  news  of  Virginia's  seces 
sion  reached  him,  he  resigned  his  commission  in  the  army  of 
the  United  States,  and  thus  wrote  to  his  sister  who  remained 
with  her  husband  on  the  Union  side : 

"  With  all  my  devotion  to  the  Union,  and  the  feeling  of 
loyalty  and  duty  of  an  American  citizen,  I  have  not  been  able 
to  make  np  my  mind  to  raise  my  hands  against  my  relatives, 
my  children,  my  Lome.  I  have,  therefore,  resigned  my  com 
mission  in  the  army,  and  save  in  the  defence  of  my  native 
State  (with  the  sincere  hope  that  my  poor  services  may  never 
be  needed)  I  hope  I  may  never  be  called  upon  to  draw  my 
sword." 

LEE  DEVOTES  HIS  SWORD  TO    HIS  NATIVE  STATE. 

Bidding  an  affectionate  adieu  to  his  old  friend  and  com 
mander,  General  Scott,  who  mourned  his  loss,  but  nobly  ex 
pressed  his  confidence  in  his  motives,  he  repaired  to  Richmond. 
Governor  John  Letcher  immediately  appointed  him  to  the 
command-in-chief  of  the  Virginia  forces,  and  the  Convention 
unanimously  confirmed  the  nomination.  Memorable  and  im 
pressive  was  the  scene  when  he  came  into  the  presence  of  that 
body  on  April  23d.  Its  venerable  President,  John  Janney, 
with  brief,  sententious  eloquence,  addressed  him,  and  con 
cluded  saying : 

"  Sir,  we  have  by  this  unanimous  vote  expressed  our  convic 
tions  that  you  are  at  this  day,  among  the  living  citizens  of  Vir 
ginia,  <  first  in  war.'  We  pray  to  God  most  fervently  that  you 
may  so  conduct  the  operations  committed  to  your  charge,  that 
it  may  be  said  of  you  that  you  are  '  first  in  peace,'  and  when 


34 

that  time  comes,1  you  will  have  earned  the  still  prouder  dis 
tinction  of  being  c  first  in  the  hearts  of  your  countrymen.' 

"  Yesterday  your  mother,  Virginia,  placed  her  sword  in  your 
hand  upon  the  implied  condition  that  we  know  you  will  keep 
in  letter  and  in  spirit :  that  you  will  draw  it  only  in  defence, 
arid  that  you  will  fall  with  it  in  your  hand  rather  than  the  ob 
ject  for  which  it  was  placed  there  should  fail." 

General  Lee  thus  answered : 

"Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Convention  : 

"  Profoundly  impressed  with  the  solemnity  of  the  occasion, 
for  which  I  must  say  I  was  not  prepared,  I  accept  the  position 
assigned  me  by  your  partiality.  I  would  have  preferred  had 
your  choice  fallen  upon  an  abler  man.  Trusting  in  Almighty 
God,  an  approving  conscience,  and  the  aid  of  my  fellow-citizens, 
I  devote  myself  to  the  service  of  my  native  State,  in  whose 
behalf  alone  will  I  ever  again  draw  my  sword." 

Thus  came  Robert  E.  Lee  to  the  State  of  his  birth  and  to  the 
people  of  his  blood  in  their  hour  of  need  !  Thus,  with  as  chaste 
a  heart  as  ever  plighted  its  faith  until  death,  for  better  or  for 
worse,  he  came  to  do,  to  suffer,  and  to  die  for  us,  who  to-day 
are  gathered  in  awful  reverence,  and  in  sorrow  unspeakable,  to 
weep  our  blessings  upon  his  tomb. 

LEE'S    VINDICATION A    PEOPLE    IS    ITS    OWX    JUDGE. 

I  pause  not  here  to  defend  the  course  of  General  Lee,  as  that 
defence  may  be  drawn  from  the  Constitution  of  a  Republic 
which  was  born  in  the  sublime  protest  of  its  people  against 
bayonet  rule,  and  founded  on  the  bed-rock  principle  of  free 
government,  that  all  free  governments  "  must  derive  their  just 
powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed."  I  pause  not  to  trace 
the  history  or  define  the  grounds  of  that  theory  of  constitu 
tional  construction  which  maintained  the  right  of  secession  from 
the  Union  as  an  element  of  sovereign  statehood — a  theory  which 
has  found  ablest  and  noblest  advocacy  in  every  section  of  the 
country.  The  tribunal  is  not  yet  formed  tl'iat  would  hearken 
to  such  defence,  nor  is  this  the  time  or  place  to  utter  it.  And 


35 

to  my  mind  there  is  for  Lee  and  his  compatriots  a  loftier  and 
truer  vindication  than  any  that  may  be  deduced  from  codes, 
constitutions,  and  conventional  articles  of  government.  A  great 
revolution  need  never  apologize  for  nor  explain  itself.  There 
it  is! — the  august  and  thrilling  rise  of  a  whole  population! 
And  the  fact  that  it;  is  there  is  the  best  evidence  of  its  right  to 
he  there.  None  but  great  inspirations  underlie  great  actions. 
None  but  great  causes  can  ever  produce  great  events.  A 
transient  gust  of  passion  may  turn  a  crowd  into  a  mob — a  tem 
porary  impulse  may  swell  a  mob  into  a  local  insurrection  ;  but 
when  a  whole  people  stand  to  their  guns  before  their  hearth 
stones,  and  as  one  man  resist  what  they  deem  aggression  ;  when 
for  long  years  they  endure  poverty  and  starvation,  and  dare 
danger  and  death  to  maintain  principles  which  they  deem  sa 
cred — when  they  shake  a  continent  with  their  heroic  endeavors 
and  fill  the  world  with  the  glory  of  their  achievements,  history 
can  make  for  them  no  higher  vindication  than  to  point  to  their 
deeds  and  say — "  b6hold  !" 

A  people  is  its  own  judge.  Under  God  there  can  be  no  higher 
judge  for  them  to  seek  or  court  or  fear.  In  the  supreme  mo 
ments  of  national  life,  as  in  the  lives  of  individuals,  the  actor 
must  resolve  and  act  within  himself  alone.  The  Southern 
States  acted  for  themselves — the  Northern  States  for  themselves 
— Virginia  for  herself.  And  when  the  lines  of  battle  formed, 
.Robert  Lee  took  his  place  in  the  line  beside  his  people,  his 
kindred,  his  children,  his  home.  Let  his  defence  rest  on  this 
fact  alone.  Nature  speaks  it.  Nothing  can  strengthen  it. 
Nothing  can  weaken  it.  The  historian  may  compile ;  the 
casuist  may  dissect ;  the  statesman  may  expatiate  ;  the  advocate 
may  plead  ;  the  jurist  may  expound  ;  but,  after  all,  there  can 
be  no  stronger  or  tenderer  tie  than  that  which  binds  the  faith 
ful  heart  to  kindred  and  to  home.  And  on  that  tie — stretching 
from  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  spanning  the  heavens,  and  riveted 
through  eternity  to  the  throne  of  God  on  high,  and  underneath 
in  the  souls  of  good  men  and  true — on  that  tie  rests,  stainless 
and  immortal,  the  fame  of  Kobert  Lee. 


36 


And  now  that  war  was  flagrant,  history  delights  to  testify  how 
grandly  General  Lee  bore  his  part.  Transferred  from  the  State 
service  to  that  of  the  Confederacy,  with  the  rank  of  General, 
we  behold  him  at  first  in  the  field  in  the  rugged  mountains  of 
Northwest  Virginia,  restoring  the  morale  lost  by  the  early  re 
verses  to  our  arms  in  that  Department — holding  invading 
columns  in  check  with  great  disparity  of  force  to  meet  them — 
bearing  the  censures  of  the  impatient  without  a  murmur,  and 
careless  of  fame  with  duty  done.  Later,  in  the  fall  of  1861, 
we  find  him  exercising  his  skill  as  an  engineer  in  planning  de 
fences  along  the  threatened  coast  of  South  Carolina  ;  and  in 
March,  1862,  he  is  again  in  Virginia,  charged  by  President 
Davis  "  with  the  conduct  of  military  operations  in  the  armies 
of  the  Confederacy  " — in  brief,  and  in  some  sort,  under  the 
President,  Commander-in-Chief. 

But  now  a  year  of  war  had  rolled  by  ;  no  brilliant  accom 
plishment  had  yet  satisfied  the  public  expectation  with  which 
he  had  been  welcomed  as  a  Southern  leader  ;  and  as  the  fame 
of  revolutionary  Captains  can  only  be  fed  with  victories,  it  is 
unquestionable  that,  at  this  stage  of  his  career,  the  reputation 
of  Lee,  as  a  General,  had  sensibly  declined. 

THE    FALL    OF    GENERAL    JOSEPH     E.    JOHNSTON     AND    THE    OPl'OR- 
T UNITY  OF  LEE. 

Meanwhile  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  had  made  a 
name  in  history  under  its  famous  commander,  Joseph  E.  John 
ston  ;  and  I  cannot  speak  that  name  without  bowing  the  homage 
of  my  heart  to  the  illustrious  soldier  and  noble  gentleman  who 
bears  it.  Under  his  sagacious  and  brilliant  leadership,  his 
forces  had  been  suddenly  witdrawn  from  Patterson's  front 
near  Winchester,  and  united  with  those  of  General  Beau  regard 
at  Manassas ;  and  there,  led  by  these  two  Generals,  the  joint 
command  had,  on  July  21st,  1861,  routed  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  in  the  first  pitched  battle  of  the  war;  had  given  earn 
est  of  what  the  volunteers  of  the  South  could  do  in  action,  and 
had  crowned  the  new-born  Confederacy  with  the  ^lorv  of 


37 

splendid  military  achievement.  Still  later  in  the  progress  of 
events,  Johnston  had  exhibited  again  his  strategic  skill  in  hold 
ing  McClellan  at  bay  on  the  lines  of  Yorktown,  with  a  force 
so  small  that  it  seemed  hardihood  to  oppose  him  with  it — had 
eluded  his  toils  by  a  retreat  up  the  Peninsula,  so  cleanly  con 
ducted,  that  little  was  lost  beyond  the  space  vacated* — had 
turned  and  fiercely  smitten  his  advancing  columns  near  the  old 
Colonial  Capital  of  Williamsburg  on  May  5th,  1862,  and  had 
planted  his  army  firmly  ground  Richmond.  Pending  the  siege 
of  Yorktown,  a  thing  had  happened  that  probably  had  no  par 
allel  in  history.  The  great  body  of  General  Johnston's  army 
had  reorganized  itself  under  the  laws  of  the  Confederacy, 
while  lying  under  the  fire  of  the  enemy's  guns,  the  privates  of 
each  company  electing  by  ballot  the  officers  that  were  to  com 
mand  them.  A  singular  exercise  of  suffrage  was  this,  but 
there  was  "a  free  ballot  and  a  fair  count,"  and  an  exhibition 
worthy  of 

"That  fierce  Democracy  that  thundered  over  Greece 
To  Macedon  and  Artaxerxes'  throne." 

— an  exhibition  which  wrould  have  delighted  the  heart  of  Thomas 
Jefferson,  and  which  certainly  put  to  blush  the  autocratic  theory 
that  armies  should  be  mere  compact  masses  of  brute  force. 
Still  later,  on  May  31st,  Johnston  had  sallied  forth  and  stormed 

*NoTE.— The  Philadelphia  Times  of  September  4th,  1883,  contained  an  article 
from  the  pen  pf  Allan  B.  Magruder,  Esq.,  brother  of  the  late  distinguished  Con 
federate  officer,  Major  General  John  Bankhead  Magruder,  in  which  the  writer 
takes  exception  to  this  statement  of  my  address.  He  says  that  to  General  Ma 
gruder  belongs  the  credit  of  the  "strategic  skill"  which  held  McClellan  at  bay 
on  the  lines  of  Yorktown  ;  that  General  Johnston  never  commanded  on  those 
lines;  and  that  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  never  tired  a  shot  in  their  de 
fence. 

The  high  character  and  standing  of  the  writer,  and  my  great  respect  for  the 
memory  of  General  Magrnder,  to  whom  I  would  do  all  honor,  induce  me  to 
notice  this  article  here.  1  do  not  deny  that  General  Magruder  did,  before  the  ar 
rival  of  General  Johnston,  defend  the  lines  of  Yorktown  with  wonderful  address 
and  boldness,  and  is  entitled  to  high  praise  for  the  ability  and  courage  displayed 
in  so  doing.  Yet  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  General  Johnston  did  command 
the  army  defending  the  Yorktown  lines  ;  and  that  his  army  h'red  many  a  shot 
in  their  defence.  This  is  attested  by  all  the  official  records.  That  there  can  be 
no  mistake  about,  it,  I  am  myself  a  witness,  for  I  marched  from  Centreville  to 
Richmond,  and  there  took  steamer  for  the  "  lines  of  Yorktown  "  with  General 
Johnston's  forces;  lay  with  them  there  in  the  trenches  for  weeks,  and  saw  and 
heard  the  tiring  of  many  a  shot  from  cannon,  ritie,  and  musket  in  their  defence. 
And  under  command  of  General  Johnston,  whom  I  personally  saw  011  the  field, 
I  marched  with  his  troops  on  the  retreat  from  Yorktown,  and  participated  in  the 
battle  of  Williamsburg,  May  5th,  18ti2,  with  the  advancing  forces  of  McClellan. 

The  fact  is  Mr.  Magruder  has  fallen  into  what  is  to  me,  astrange  and  unaccount 
able  error,  as  he  will  discover  on  reading  any  history  of  the  events  referred  to.  I 
have  before  me  McCabe's  Life  of  Lee,  and  Gen.  Joseph  E.  Johnston's  work,  enti 
tled  "Johnston's  Narrative,"  and  they  confirm  the  accuracy  of  the  statements 
upon  which  my  remarks  are  based.  The  credit  given  General  Johnston  is  due 
him ;  but  it  in  no  wise  detracts  from  that  likewise  due  General  Magruder,  for 
his  anterior  exploits  of  a  like  nature.  J.  W.  I). 


38 

and  taken  the  outer  entrenchments  and  camps  of  McClellan's 
army  at  Seven  Pines,  capturing  ten  pieces  of  artillery,  six  thou 
sand  muskets,  and  other  spoils  of  war,  and  destroying  the  pres 
tige  of  the  second  "  On  to  Richmond"  movement. 

But  ere  the  day  was  done  victory  had  been  checked,  and 
glory  had  exacted  costly  tribute,  for  Johnston  himself  had 
fallen,  terribly  wounded.  The  hero,  covered  with  ten  wounds 
received  in  Florida  and  Mexico,  had  been  prostrated  by  an 
other  ;  and  when  June  1st  dawned  on  the  confronting  armies, 
the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  was  without  the  leader  who 
held  its  thorough  confidence,  but  now  lay  stricken  well-nigh 
unto  death.  The  casualty  which  thus  deprived  the  army  of 
its  honored  commander,  and  closed  to  him  the  opportunity, 
which,  in  large  measure,  his  own  great  skill  had  created, 
opened  the  opportunity  of  Lee.  Fortunate  the  State,  and  great 
the  people  from  whom  spring  two  such  sons — fortunate  the 
army  that  always  had  a  leader  worthy  of  it — happy  he  who  can 
transmit  his  place  to  one  so  well  qualified  to  fill  it — and  happy 
likewise  he  who  had  such  predessorto  prepare  the  way  for  vic 
tory. 

GENERAL  LEE  IN  COMMAND  OF  THE  ARMY  OF  NORTHERN  VIRGINIA 
—  RICHMOND,  MANASSA8,  HARPER5  8  FERRY,  SHARPSBDRG,  FRED- 
ERICK8BURG. 

On  the  3d  of  June,  1862,  General  Lee  was  assigned  to  com 
mand  in  person  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia;  and  from 
that  day  to  April  9th,  1805,  nearly  three  years,  he  was  at  its 
head.  And  on  the  page  of  history  now  laid  open  are  crowded 
schemes  of  war  and  feats  of  arms  as  brilliant  as  ever  thrilled 
the  soul  of  heroism  and  genius  with  admiration, — a  page  of 
history  that  feasted  glory  till  pity  cried,  "no  more."  Swift 
was  Lee  to  plan,  and  swift  to  execute.  Making  a  feint  of 
reinforcing  Jackson  in  the  Valley,  startling  the  Federal  author 
ities  with  apprehensions  of  attack  on  the  Potomac  lines,  and 
practically  eliminating  McDowell,  who,  with  his  corps,  remained 
near  Fredericksburg,  he  suddenly  descends  with  Jackson  on 
the  right  and  rear  of  McOlellan.  and  ere  thirty  days  have 


passed  since  he  assumed  command,  Richmond  has  been  saved, 
and  the  fields  around  her  made  immortal ;  and  the  broken 
ranks  of  McClellan  are  crouching  for  protection  under  the 
heavy  guns  of  the  iron-clads  at  Harrison's  Landing.  Sixty 
days  more,  and  the  siege  of  Richmond  has  been  raised, — the 
Confederate  columns  are  marching  Northward  ;  Jackson  in  the 
advance,  has  on  August  9th  caught  up  again  with  his  old  friend 
Banks,  at  Slaughter's  Mountain,  and  punished  him  terribly, 
and  as  the  day  closes  August  30th,  Manassas  has  the  second 
time  been  the  scene  of  a  general  engagement  with  like  results 
as  the  first.  John  Pope,  who  thitherto,  according  to  his 
pompous  boast,  had  "seen  only  the  backs  of  his  enemies,"  has 
had  his  curiosity  entirely  satisfied  with  a  brief  glimpse  of  their 
faces;  and  the  proud  army  of  the  Potomac  is  flying  in  hot 
haste  to  find  shelter  in  the  entrenchments  of  Washington.  In 

o 

early  September  the  Confederates  are  in  Maryland.  In  extreme 
exigency,  McClellan  is  recalled  to  command  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  but  while  Lee  holds  him  in  check  at  Boonsboro  and 
South  Mountain,  a  series  of  complicated  manoeuvres  have 
invested  General  Miles,  the  officer  in  command  at  Harper's 
Ferry,  and  on  September  15th  Stonewall  Jackson  has  there 
received  surrender  of  his  entire  army  of  eleven  thousand  men, 
seventy-three  cannon,  thirteen  thousand  small  arms,  two  hun 
dred  wagons,  and  many  stores.  But  there  is  no  time  to  rest, 
for  McClellan  presses  Lee  at  Sharpsburg,  and  there,  September 
17th,  battle  is  delivered.  Upon  its  eve  Jackson  has  arrived 
fresh  from  Harper's  Ferry.  McClellan's  repeated  assaults  on 
Lee  were  everywhere  repulsed.  He  remained  on  the  field  Sep 
tember  18th,  and  then  recrossed  the  Potomac  into  Virginia. 

The  winter  of  1862  comes,  and  Burnside,  succeeding  Mc 
Clellan,  assails  Lee  at  Fredericksburg  on  December  13th,  and 
is  repulsed  with  terrible  slaughter. 

1863 — CIIANCELLORSVILLE. 

With  the  dawn  of  spring  in  1863,  a  replenished  army  with  a 
fresh  commander,  "  Fighting  Joe  Hooker,"  renews  the  onset 
by  way  of  Chancellors ville,  and  finds  Lee  with  two  divisions  of 


40 

Longstreet's  corps  absent  in  Southeast  Virginia.  But  slender 
as  are  his  numbers,  Lee  is  ever  aggressive  ;  and  while  Hooker 
with  "the  finest  army  on  the  planet,"  as  he  styled  it,  is. con 
fronting  Lee  near  Chancellorsville,  and  Early  is  holding  Sedg- 
wick  at  bay  at  Fredericksburg,  Jackson,  who,  under  Lee's 
directions,  has  stealthily  marched  around  him,  comes  thunder 
ing  in  his  rear,  and  alas  !  for  "  Fighting  Joe,"  he  can  only  illus 
trate  his  pugnacious  subriquet  bj7  the  consoling  reflection  that 

"  He  who  fights  and  runs  away, 
May  live  to  fight  another  day," 

for  Chancellorsville  shines  high  on  the  list  of  Confederate  vic 
tories,  and  indeed  was  one  of  the  grandest  victories  that  ever 
blazoned  the  annals  of  war. 

THE    FALL  OF    STONEWALL    JACKSOX. 

But  alas  !  too,  for  the  victor, — on  May  2d,  in  the  culminating 
act  of  the  drama,  Jackson  himself  had  fallen,  and  never  more 
is  the  "foot  cavalry  "  to  see  again  along  the  smoking  lines  that 
calm,  stern  face  ; — never  to  hear  again  that  crisp,  fierce  order, 
"  Give  them  the  bayonet !"  which  so  often  heralded  the  tri 
umphant  charge ;  never  is  the  Southern  land  to  be  thrilled 
again  with  his  familiar  bulletin — "  God  blessed  our  arms  with 
victory."  At  the  age  of  39 — at  a  time  of  life  when  the  pow 
ers  of  manhood  are  ordinarily  scarce  full-orbed,  he  has  touched 
the  zenith,  and  filled  the  world  with  his  fame ;  and  he  who  went 
forth  two  years  before  from  this  quiet  town,  scarce  known 
beyond  it,  comes  back  upon  the  soldier's  bier,  renowned, 
revered,  and  mourned  in  every  clime  where  the  heart  quickens 
in  sympathy  for  surpassing  valor,  united  with  transcendent 
genius  and  honor  without  a  stain.  There  he  sleeps,  in  yon  green 
grave,  and  as  in  life  he  fought,  so  in  death  he  rests  with  Lee. 

WINCHESTER   AND    GETTYSBURG. 

But  not  long  can  the  soldier  pause  to  weep.  We  fire  our 
salute  over  the  ashes  of  our  heroic  dead  ;  and  again  the  bugles 
sound  "  boots  and  saddles,"  and  the  long  roll  is  beating.  Less 
than  a  month  has  passed,  and  again  the  Army  of  Northern 


41 

Virginia  is  in  motion,  and  while  Hooker  is  groping  around  to 
ascertain  the  whereabouts  of  his  adversary,  the  next  scene 
unfolds :  General  Early  has  planned  and  executed  a  flank 
march  around  Winchester,  worthy  of  Stonewall  Jackson, — the 
men  of  his  division  are  mounting  the  parapets  on  June  14th, 
and  capturing  Milroy's  guns.  General  Edward  Johnston's 
division  is  pursuing  Milroy's  fugitives  down  the  Valley  pike. 
General  Rodes  has  captured  Martinsburg,  with  100  prisoners 
and  five  cannon, — Ewell's  corps  is  master  of  the  Yalley, — and 
by  June  21th,  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  is  in  Pennsyl 
vania,  while  for  the  third  time  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  is 
glad  if  it  can  interpose  to  prevent  the  fall  of  Washington — 
and  a  sixth  commander  has  come  to  its  head — General  George 
C.  Meade. 

Then  follows  the  boldest  and  grandest  assault  of  modern 
war — the  charge  upon  the  Federal  centre  entrenched  on  the 
heights  of  Gettysburg — a  charge  that  well-nigh  ended  the  war 
with  "  a  clap  of  thunder,"  and  was  so  characterized  by  brave 
design  and  dauntless  execution  that  friend  and  foe  alike  burst 
into  irrepressible  praise  of  the  great  commander  who  directed 
and  of  the  valorous  men  who  made  it.  It  failed.  But  Lee,, 
unshaken,  rallies  the  broken  lines,  and  the  next  morning  stands 
in  steady  array,  flaunting  his  banners  defiantly,  and  challenging 
renewal  of  the  strife.  "  It  is  all  my  fault,"  he  says.  JSTot  so 
thought  his  men.  We  saw  him  standing  by  the  roadside  with 
his  bridle  rein  over  his  arm,  on  the  second  day  afterwards,  as 
the  army  was  withdrawing.  Pickett's  division  filed  past  him  ; 
every  General  of  Brigade  had  fallen,  and  every  field-officer  of 
its  regiments;  a  few  tattered  battle-flags  and  a  few  hundreds 
of  men  were  all  that  was  left  of  the  magnificent  body,  5,000 
strong,  who  had  made  the  famous  charge.  He  stood  with  un 
covered  head,  as  if  he  reviewed  a  conquering  host,  and  with 
the  conqueror's  look  upon  him.  With  proud  step  the  men 
marched  by,  and  as  they  raised  their  hats  and  cheered  him 
there  was  the  tenderness  of  devoted  love,  mingled  with  the  fire 
of  battle,  in  their  eyes. 

Returning  to  Virginia  in  martial  trim  and  undismayed,  and 


42 

followed  by  Meade  with  that  slow  and  gingerly  step  which  is 
self-explaining,  we  next  behold  our  General  displaying  that 
rare  self-poise  and  confidence  which  bespeaks  ever  a  great 
quality — firmness  of  mind  in  war.  In  September,  while  he 
confronts  Meade  along  the  Rapidan,  he  detatches  the  entire 
corps  of  Longstreet,  and  ere  Meade  is  aware  of  this  weakening 
of  his  opponent's  forces,  Longstreet  is  nine  hundred  miles 
away,  striking  a  terrible  blow  at  Chickamauga. 

The  year  1863  passes  by  without  other  signficant  event  in 
the  story  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia.  Meade  indeed, 
once  in  November,  deployed  his  lines  along  Mine  Run 
in  seeming  overtures  of  battle,  but  quickly  concluding  that 
"  discretion  was  the  better  part  of  valor,"  he  marched  back 
across  the  Rappahannock,  content  with  his  observations. 

1864 — WILDERNESS,    SPOTSYLVANIA,    COLD    HARBOR,    PETERSBURG, 

LYXCHBURG. 

But  as  the  May  blossoms  in  1864,  we  hear  once  more  the 
wonted  strain  of  spring,  "tramp,  tramp,  tramp,  the  boys  are 
marching,"  and  Grant  (who  had  succeeded  Meade),  crossing 
the  Rappahannock  with  141,000  men,  plunges  boldly  into  the 
Wilderness  on  May  4th,  leading  the  sixth  crusade  for  the  re 
duction  of  Richmond.  But  scarce  had  he  disclosed  his  line  of 
march,  than  Lee,  with  50,000  of  his  braves,  springs  upon  him 
and  hurls  him  back,  staggering  and  gory,  through  the  tangled 
chapparal  of  the  Wilderness,  atid  from  the  fields  of  Spotsyl- 
vania  :  and  though  the  redoubtable  Grant  writes  to  the  Govern 
ment  on  May  12th,  "  I  propose  to  fight  it  out  on  this  line  if  it 
takes  all  summer;"  when  we  look  over  the  field  of  Cold  Har 
bor  on  June  3d,  we  see  there,  stretched  in  swaths  and  piled 
in  reeking  mounds  13,000  of  his  men, — the  killed  and 
wounded  of  his  last  assault  "in  the  over-land  campaign."'  And 
when  Grant  ordered  his  lines  to  attack  again  the  flinty  front  of 
Lee,  they  stood  immobile, — in  silent  protest  against  the  vain 
attempt,  and  in  silent  eulogy  of  their  sturdy  foe.  One  summer 
month  had  been  summer  time  enough  for  Grant  along  that 
impervious  line;  and  there  at  Cold  Harbor  practically  closed 


4:3 

the  sixth  expedition  aimed  directly  at  the  Confederate  Capital 
— McDowell,  McClellan,  Pope,  Burn  side,  Hooker  and  now 
Grant, — all  being  disastrously  repulsed  by  the  Army  of  North 
ern  Virginia,  and  all  but  the  first  receiving  their  repulse  by  the 
army  led  by  Lee.  But  Grant  in  some  sort,  veiled  his  reverses 
by  immediately  abandoning  attack  on  the  north  side  of  the 
James,  which  he  crossed  in  the  middle  of  June, — attempting 
to  capture  Petersburg  on  the  south  side  by  a  coup  de  main. 
But  in  this,  after  four  days'  successive  assaults  which  ended  in 
vain  carnage,  he  failed  again;  and  almost  simultaneously  Hun 
ter's  invasion  through  the  Valley  was  intercepted  and  success 
fully  repelled  at  Lynchburg  by  the  swift  and  bold  movements 
of  Lee's  greatest  Lieutenant, — the  ever-to-be-counted-on  Jubal 
A.  Early,  who  had  been  dispatched  to  meet  him  with  a  force 
not  half  his  equal  in  numbers.  And  when  midsummer  came, 
Grant  was  glad  to  shelter  his  drooping  banners  behind  en 
trenchments;  Hunter  was  flying  to  the  mountains  of  West 
Virginia,  and  detachments  were  hurrying  from  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac  to  save  Washington,  which  was  trembling  at  the 
sound  of  Enrly's  guns.  In  that  wonderful  campaign  of  Lee 
from  the  Wilderness  to  Petersburg,  Grant  had  lost  not  less 
than  70,000  men  in  reaching  a  point  which  he  might  have 
gained  by  river  approaches  without  the  loss  of  one.  Every 
man  in  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  had  more  than  stricken 
down  a  foeman  ;  and  final  demonstration  had  been  given  to 
the  fact  that  in  field  fight,  Lee  could  not  be  matched  in  gen 
eralship,  and  that  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  was  invinci 
ble.  This  fact  the  hard  sense  of  Grant  recognized;  and  though 
no  commander  who  felt  himself  and  his  men  to  be  the  equals 
of  their  adversaries  in  manoeuvre  and  combat  would  ever  come 
down  to  such  conclusion,  it  is  creditable  to  Grant's  plain,  mat 
ter-of-fact  way  of  looking  at  things — that  he  looked  at  them 
just  as  they  were.  And  so  he  resorted  to  sap  and  mine  and 
pick  and  spade  to  do  the  work  which  strategy  and  valor  had  so 
often  essayed  in  vain.  For  nine  months  the  armies  lay  before 
the  muzzles  of  each  other's  guns, — bumping,  as  it  were,  against 
each  other, — Grant  deliberately  counting  that  he  who  had  the 


4-1 

most  heads  could  butt  the  longest.  Thus  Lee  stood  with  less 
than  40,000  men  covering  a  line  of  thirty  miles,  while  Grant, 
with  more  than  three  times  that  number,  over  and  over  again 
at  Reams'S  Station,  at  the  Crater,  at  Hatcher's  Run  and  other 
points,  battered  the  armor  from  which  every  blow  recoiled. 
So  Lee  stood  with  a  half-fed  and  half-clothed  soldiery,  composed 
largely  of  stripling  youth  and  failing  age,  beating  back  his 
three-fold  foe,  freshly  recruited  for  every  fresh  assault,  and 
generously  provided  with  the  richest  stores  and  most  approved 
arms  and  munitions  of  war. 

Time  forbids  that  I  prolong  the  story ;  and  this  imperfect 
sketch  is  but  a  dim  outline  of  that  grand  historic  picture  in 
which  Robert  Lee  will  ever  stand  as  the  foremost  figure,  chal 
lenging  and  enchaining  the  reverence  and  admiration  of  man 
kind, — the  faint  suggestion  of  that  magnificent  career  which  has 
made  for  him  a  place  on  the  heights  of  history  as  high  as  war 
rior's  sword  has  ever  carved. 

PREMONITIONS    OF    THE    END — THE    MARCH    TO    APPOMATTQX. 

Yain  was  the  mighty  struggle,  led  by  the  peerless  Lee. 
Genius  planned,  valor  executed,  patriotism  stripped  itself  of 
every  treasure,  and  heroism  fought  and  bled  and  died, — and  all 
in  vain!  When  the  drear  winter  of  1864  came  at  last,  there 
came  also  premonotions  of  the  end.  '•  The  very  seed-corn  of 
the  Confederacy  had  been  ground  up,"  as  President  Davis  said. 
The  people  sat  at  naked  tables  and  slept  in  sheetless  beds,  for 
their  apparel  had  been  used  to  bind  up  wounds.  The  weeds  grew 
in  fenceless  fields,  for  the  plow-horse  was  pulling  the  cannon. 
The  church-yard  and  the  mansion  fences  were  stripped  of  their 
leaden  ornaments,  that  the  musket  and  the  rifle  might  not  lack 
for  bullets.  The  church  bells,  now  melted  into  cannon,  pealed 
forth  the  dire  notes  of  war.  The  land  was  drained  of"  its  sub 
stance,  and  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  was  nearly  ex 
hausted  for  want  of  food  and  raiment.  All  through  the  bleak 
winter  davs  and  nights  its  decimated  and  shivering:  ranks  still 

*/  O  O 

faced  the  dense  battallions   of  Grant,  in  misery  and  want  not 
less  than  that  which  stained  the  snows  of  Valley  Forge ;  and 


45 

the  army  seemed  to  live  only  on  its  innate,  indomitable  will,  as 
oftentimes  we  see  some  noble  mind  survive  when  the  physical 
powers  of  nature  have  been  exhausted.  Like  a  rock  of  old 
ocean,  it  had  received,  and  broken,  and  hurled  back  into  tl)e 
deep  in  bloody  foam  those  swiftly  succeeding  waves  of  four 
years  of  incessant  battle ;  but  now  the  fock  itself  was  wearing 
away,  and  still  the  waves  came  on. 

A  new  enemy  was  now  approaching  the  sturdy  devoted  band. 
In  September,  1864,  Atlanta  fell,  and  through  Georgia  to  the  sea, 
with  fire  and  sword,  swept  the  victorious  columns  of  Sherman. 
In  January,  1865,  the  head  of  column  had  been  turned  north 
ward  ;  and  in  February,  Columbia  and  Charleston  shared  the 
fate  that  had  already  befallen  Savannah.  Yes,  a  new  enemy  was 
approaching  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  and  this  time  in 
the  rear.  The  homes  of  the  soldiers  of  the  Army  of  Northern 
Virginia  from  the  Southern  States  were  now  in  ashes.  Wives, 
mothers  and  sisters  were  wanderers  under  the  winter  skies, 
flying  from  the  invaders  who  srnote  and  spared  not  in  their  re 
lentless  march.  Is  it  wonder  that  hearts  that  never  quailed  be 
fore  bayonet  or  blade  beat  now  with  tremulous  and  irrepressi 
ble  emotion  ?  Is  it  wonder  that,  in  the  watches  of  the  night, 
the  sentinel  in  the  trenches,  tortured  to  excruciation  with  the 
thought  that  those  dearest  of  earth  to  him  were  without  an 
arm  to  save,  felt  his  soul  sink  in  anguish  and  his  hope  perish  ? 
So  it  was,  that  with  hunger  and  nakedness  as  its  companions, 
and  foes  in  front  and  foes  in  rear,  the  Army  of  Northern  Vir 
ginia  seemed  bound  to  the  rock  of  fate. 

On  April  1st  the  left  wing  of  Grant's  massive  lines  swept 
around  the  right  and  rear  of  Lee.  Gallantly  did  Pickett  and 
his  men  meet  and  resist  them  at  Five  Forks;  but  that  com 
manding  strategic  point  was  taken,  arid  the  fall  of  Petersburg 
and  of  Richmond  alike  became  inevitable.  On  the  next  day, 
April  :id,  they  were  evacuated.  Grant  was  now  on  a  shorter 
line  projected  toward  Danville  than  Lee,  and  the  latter  com 
menced  at  once  that  memorable  retreat  towards  Lynchburg, 
which  ended  at  Appomattox. 


46 

THE  BATTLE  OF  APPOMATTOX THE  LAST  CHARGE. 

Over  that  march  of  desperate  valor  disputing  fate,  as  over 
the  face  of  a  hero  in  the  throes  of  dissolution,  I  throw  the 
blood-reeking  battle-flag,  rent  with  wounds,  as  a  veil.  And  I 
hail  the  heroic  army  anji  its  heroic  chief,  as  on  the  9th  of  April 
morn,  they  stand  embattled  in  calm  and  stern  repose,  ready  to 
die  with  their  harness  on, — warriors  every  inch,  without  fear, 
without  stain.  Around  the  little  hamlet  of  Appomattox  Court 
house  is  gathered  the  remnant  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Vir 
ginia, — less  than  8,000  men  with  arms  in  their  hands, — less 
than  27,000  all  told,  counting  camp  followers  and  stragglers ; 
and  around  them  in  massive  concentric  lines  the  army  of  Grant, 
flushed  with  success  and  expectation — more  than  80,000  strong 
upon  the  field,  and  with  each  hour  bringing  up  re-inforcements. 
"The  environed  army,  with  a  valor  ail  Spartan,  stand  ready  to 
die,  not  indeed  in  response  to  civic  laws  denying  surrender, 
but  obedient  to  the  lofty  impulse  of  honor."  Can  they  cut 
through  ?  Does  the  dream  of  a  saved  Confederacy  yet  beckon 
them  on  beyond  the  wall  of  steel  and  fire  that  girdles  them  ? 
Can  they  find  fighting  ground  in  the  Carolinas  with  Joseph  E. 
Johnston,  who,  among  the  first  to  meet  the  foe,  proves  amongst 
the  last  to  leave  him?  Can  these  dauntless  foeman  yet  cleave 
a  path  to  the  inner  country,  and  renew  the  unequal  strife? 

Not  till  that  hope  is  tested  will  they  yield  ! 

As  the  day  dawns,  a  remnant  of  the  cavalry  under  Fitz.  Lee 
is  forming,  and  Gordon's  infantry,  scarce  two  thousand  strong, 
are  touching  elbows  for  the  last  charge.  Once  more  the  thrill 
ing  rebel  cheer  rings  through  the  Virginia  woods,  and  with  all 
their  wonted  fierceness  they  fall  upon  Sheridan's  men.  Ah  ! 
yes,  victory  still  clings  to  the  tattered  battle-flags.  Yes,  the 
troopers  of  our  gallant  Fitz.  are  as  dauntless  as  when  they  fol 
lowed  the  plume  of  Stuart,  <•  the  flower  of  cavaliers."  Yes, 
the  matchless  infantry  of  "tattered  uniforms  and  bright  mus 
kets"  under  Gordon,  the  brave,  move  with  as  swift,  intrepid 
tread  as  when  of  old — Stonewall  led  the  way.  Soldiers  of 
Manassas,  of  Richmond,  Sharpsburg,  Fredericksburg,  Chancel- 
lorsville,  Gettysburg,  of  the  Wilderness,  of  Spotsylvania,  of 


47 

Cold  Harbor,  of  Petersburg — scarred  and  sinewy  veterans  of 
fifty  fields,  your  glories  are  still  about  you,  your  manhood  is 
triumphant  still.  Yes,  the  blue  lines  break  before  them  ;  two 
cannon  and  many  prisoners  are  taken,  and  for  two  miles  they 
sweep  the  field  towards  Lynchburg — victors  still ! 

But  no,  too  late !  too  late!  Behind  the  flying  sabres  and 
rifles  of  Sheridan  rise  the  bayonets  and  frown  the  batteries  of 
the  Army  of  the  James,  under  Ord — a  solid  phalanx  stands 
right  athwart  the  path  of  Fitz.  Lee's  and  Gordon's  men.  Too 
late !  the  die  is  cast !  The  doom  is  sealed  !  There  is  no  escape. 
The  eagle  is  quarried  in  his  eyre  ;  the  wounded  lion  is  haunted 
to  his  lair ! 

And  so  the  guns  of  the  last  charge  died  away  in  the  morn 
ing  air ;  and  echo,  like  the  sob  of  a  mighty  sea,  rolled  up  the 
valley  of  the  Jarnes,  and  all  was  still.  The  last  fight  of  the 
Army  of  Northern  Virginia  had  been  fought.  The  end  had 
come.  The  smoke  vanished.  The  startled  birds  renewed  their 
songs  over  the  stricken  field;  the  battle  smell  was  drowned  in 
the  fragrance-  of  the  flowering  spring.  And  the  ragged  soldier 
of  the  South,  God  bless  him  !  stood  there  facing  the  dread 
reality,  more  terrible  than  death — stood  there  to  grapple  with 
and  face  down  despair,  for  he  had  done  his  all,  and  all  was  lost, 
save  Honor  ! 

SURRENDER. 

General  Lee,  dressed  in  his  best  uniform,  rides  to  the  front 
to  meet  General  Grant.  For  several  days  demands  for  surren 
der  had  been  rejected — now  surrender  was  inevitable.  And 
the  two  commanding  officers  meet  at  the  McLean  House  to 
concert  its  terms.  The  first  and  abiding  thought  of  Lee  was 
the  honor  of  his  men,  for  he  had  determined  to  '"cut  his  way 
through  at  all  hazards,  if  such  terms  were  not  granted  as  he 
thought  his  army  was  entitled  to  demand."  "  General,"  said 
Lee,  addressing  Grant,  and  opening  the  conversation,  "I  deem 
it  due  to  proper  candor  and  frankness  to  say  at  the  beginning 
of  this  interview  that  1  am  not  willing  even  to  discuss  any 
terms  of  surrender,  inconsistent  with  the  honor  of  my  army, 


48 

which  I  am  determined  to  maintain  to  the  last."  Grant  gave 
fitting  and  magnanimous  response,  and  the  honorable  terms 
demanded  were  agreed  to.  "'  The  officers  to  retain  their  side 
arms,  private  horses  and  baggage,"  and  u  each  officer  and  man  to 
be  allowed  to  return  to  his  home,"  and,  mark  it,  "  not  to  ~be  dis 
turbed  by  United  States  authority  as  long  as  they  observe  their 
parole,  and  the  laws  in  force  where  they  reside" 

Thus  at  last  was  the  liberty  of  the  soldier  purchased  with 
his  blood. 

And  so  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  never  broken  in 
battle,  passed  from  action  into  History  ;  so  it  perished  by  the 
flashing  of  the  guns,  while  victory  hung  charmed  to  its  flag, 
and  threw  upon  its  tomb  the  immortelles  of  Honor. 

<k  The  old  order  changeth,  yielding  place  to  new, 
And  Clod  fulfills  himself  in  many  ways." 

FAREWELL. 

"Men^  we  have  fought  through  the  war  together.  I  have 
done  my  best  for  you  •  my  heart  is  too  full  to  say  more"  was 
Lee's  utterance  to  the  ragged,  battle-begrimmed  boys  in  gray, 
who,  when  the  dread  news  of  surrender  spread  among  them, 
gathered  around  him  to  shake  his  hand  and  testify  their  undy 
ing  confidence  and  love.  In  his  published  address  he  said  to 
them  :  "  You  will  carry  with  you  the  satisfaction  that  proceeds 
from  the  .consciousness  of  duty  faithfully  performed,  and  I 
earnestly  pray  that  a  merciful  God  will  extend  to  you  his 
blessing  and  protection.  With  an  unceasing  admiration  of 
your  constancy  and  devotion  to  your  country,  and  a  grateful 
remembrance  of  your  kind  and  generous  consideration  of 
myself,  I  bid  you  an  affectionate  farewell.'' 

As  Robert  Lee  rode  from  Appomattox  toward  Richmond, 
he  carried  with  him  the  heart  of  every  man  that  fought  under 
him — linked  to  him  with  hooks  of  steel  forever.  When  he 
reached  the  fallen  Capital  of  the  dead  Confederacy,  and  rode 
through  its  ashes  and  paling  fires  to  his  home,  a  body  of  Fed 
eral  soldiers  there,  catching  a  glimpse  of  his  noble  countenance, 
lifted  their  hats  and  cheered;  and 'as  the  great  actor  in  the 


49 

bloody  drama  stepped  behind  the  scenes,  and  the  curtain  fell 
upon  the  tragic  stage  of  the  secession  war,  the  last  sounds  that 
greeted  his  ears  were  the  generous  salutations  of  respect  from 
those  against  whom  he  had  wielded  his  knightly  sword. 

RETIREMENT,    COUNSEL    AND    ACCEPTANCE    OF    THE    SITUATION. 

Had  the  paroled  soldier  of  Appomattox  carried  to  retirement 
the  vexed  spirit  and  hollow  heart  of  a  ruined  gamester,  nothing 
had  remained  to  him  but  to  drain  the  dregs  of  a  disappointed 
career.  But  there  went  with  him  that  "  conscionsness  of  duty 
faithfully  performed,"  which  consoles  every  rebuff  of  fortune, 
sweetens  every  sorrow,  and  tempers  every  calamity — and  now 
it  was  that  he  proved  indeed  what  he  once  expressed  in  lan 
guage,  that  "  Human  fortitude  should  be  equal  to  human 
adversity."  Once  on  the  Appomattox  lines  agony  had  tortured 
from  his  lips  the  words :  "  How  easily  I  could  get  rid  of  this 
and  be  at  rest.  I  have  only  to  ride  along  the  lines,  and  all  will 
be  over."  But  he  quickly  added  :  "  It  is  our  duty  to  live,  for 
what  will  become  of  the  women  and  children  of  the  South  if 
we  are  riot  here  to  protect  them  ?"  And  as  the  thought  of  his 
country  was  thus  uppermost  and  controlling  in  the  awful  hour 
of  surrender,  so  it  remained  to  the  closing  of  his  life.  Ere 
the  struggle  ended  he  had  disclosed  to  a  confidential  friend, 
General  Pendleton,  that  "  he  never  believed  we  could,  against 
the  gigantic  combination  for  our  subjugation,  make  good  our 
independence,  unless  foreign  powers,  directly  or  indirectly, 
assisted  us."  But  said  he,  "  We  had  sacred  principles  to  main 
tain  and  rights  to  defend,  for  which  we  were  in  duty  bound  to 
do  our  best,  even  if  we  perished  in  the  endeavor."  And  now 
that  tiiis  belief  was  verified,  he  declared  :  "  I  did  only  what  my 
duty  demanded.  I  could  have  taken  no  other  course  without 
dishonor.  And  if  all  were  to  be  done  over  again,  I  should  act 
in  precisely  the  same  manner."  And  when  those  about  him 
mourned  the  great  disaster,  he  said  :  "  Yes,  that  is  all  very  sad, 
and  might  be  a  cause  of  self-reproach,  but  that  we  are  conscious 
that  we  have  humbly  tried  to  do  our  duty.  We  may,  there 
fore,  with  calm  satisfaction,  trust  in  God,  and  leave  results  to 
Him," 


50 

Lee  thoroughly  understood  and  thoroughly  accepted  the 
situation.  lie  realized  fully  that  the  war  had  settled,  settled 
forever,  the  peculiar  issues  which  had  embroiled  it ;  but  he 
knew  also  that  only  time  could  dissipate  its  rankling  passions 
and  restore  freedom  ;  and  hence  it  was  he  taught  that  "  Silence 
and  patience  on  the  part  of  the  South  was  the  true  course  " 
silence,  because  it  was  vain  to  speak  when  prejudice  ran  too 
high  for  our  late  enemies  to  listen — patience,  because  it  was 
the  duty  of  the  hour  to  labor  for  recuperation  and  wait  for 
reconciliation.  And  murmuring  no  vain  sigh  over  the  "might 
have  been,"  which  now  could  not  be — conscious  that  our  des 
tinies  were  irrevocably  bound  up  with  those  of  the  perpetual 
Union,  he  lifted  high  over  the  fallen  standards  of  war  the 
banner  of  the  Prince  of  Peace,  emblazoned  with  "  Peace  on 
Earth  and  Good  Will  toward  Men." 

The  President  and  Congress  of  the  United  States  made  con 
ditions  of  pardon  and  absolution.  They  were  harsh  and  exact 
ing.  The  mass  of  the  people  affected  by  them,  of  necessity, 
had  to  accept  them.  Therefore  he  would  share  their  humilia 
tion.  Accordingly  he  asked  amnesty.  But  his  letter  was 
never  answered.  He  was  indicted  for  treason.  He  appeared 
ready  to  answer  the  charge.  But  the  government  now  revolted 
from  an  act  of  treachery  so  base,  for  his  parole  of  Appomattox 
protected  him.  Thus  was  he  reviled  and  harrassed,  yet  never 
word  of  bitterness  escaped  him  ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  only 
counsels  of  forbearance,  patience  and  diligent  attention  to 
works  of  restoration.  Many  sought  new  homes  in  foreign 
lands,  but  not  so  he.  "All  good  citizens,"  he  said,  "must 
unite  in  honest  efforts  to  obliterate  the  effects  of  war,  and  to 
restore  the  blessings  of  peace.  They  must  not  abandon  their 
country,  but  go  to  work  and  build  up  its  prosperity."  "  The 
young  men  especially  must  stay  at  home,  bearing  themselves 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  gain  the  esteem  of  every  one,  at  the 
same  time  that  they  .maintain  their  own  respect."  •'  It  should 
be  the  object  of  all  to  avoid  controversy,  to  allay  passion,  and 
give  scope  to  every  kindly  feeling."  "It  is  wisest  not  to  keep 
open  the  sores  of  war,  but  to  follow  the  example  of  those  na- 


51 

• 

tions  who  have  endeavored   to  obliterate  the  marks  of  civil 
strife,  and  to  commit  to  oblivion  the  feelings  it  engendered." 

"  True  patriotism  sometimes  requires  of  men  to  act  exactly 
contrary  at  one  period  to  that  which  it  does  at  another,  and  the 
motive  that  impels  them,  the  desire  to  do  right,  is  precisely  the 
same.  The  circumstances  which  govern  their  actions  change, 
and  their  conduct  must  conform  to  the  new  order  of  things. 
History  is  full  of  illustrations  of  this.  Washington  himself  is 
an  example  of  this.  At  one  time  he  fought  against  the  French 
under  Braddock ;  at  another  time  he  fought  with  the  French 
at  Yorktown,  under  the  orders  of  the  Continental  Congress  of 
America,  against  him.  He  has  not  been  branded  by  the  world 
with  reproach  for  this,  but  his  course  has  been  applauded." 
These  were  some  of  the  wise  and  temperate  counsels  with  which 
he  pointed  out  the  duties  of  the  hour. 

JEFFERSON    DAVIS. 

Xor  was  he  lacking  in  faithful  remembrance  of  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  Confederacy,  who  for  months  and  months  after 
surrender  lay  sick  and  in  prison,  and  who  seemed  to  be  singled 
out  to  undergo  vicarious  punishment  for  the  deeds  of  the  peo 
ple.  "  Mr.  Davis,"  truly  said  General  Lee,  "  did  nothing  more 
than  all  the  citizens  of  the  Southern  States,  and  should  not  be 
held  accountable  for  acts  performed  by  them,  in  the  exercise 
of  what  had  been  considered  by  them  unquestionable  right." 
None  are  more  conscious  of  this  fact  than  those  against  whom  Jef 
ferson  Davis  directed  the  Confederate  arms  ;  and  that  he  yet, 
nearly  twenty  years  after  strife  has  ceased,  should  be  disfran 
chised  in  a  land  that  vaunts  its  freedom,  for  so  doing,  is  a  griev 
ance,  and  a  grief  to  every  honorable  Southern  man.  He  him 
self  is  honored  by  this  significant  mark  of  hostile  memory. 
He  cannot  suffer  by  the  ignoble  act.  Only  they  who  do  it  are 
deeply  ashamed.  And  that  it  is  done,  only  shows  the  weakness 
of  representatives  who  have  not  read  the  very  title  page  in  the 
book  of  human  nature,  and  who,  vainly  conceiving  that  an 
insult  to  one  man  can  be  fruitful  of  any  public  good,  only 
illustrate  the  saying  of  Madame  do  Stiiel,  "that  the  strongest  of 


52 

all  antipathies  is  that  of  second-rate  minds  for  a  first-rate  one," 
and  that  other  maxim  of  Edmund  Burke,  that  "  great  empires 
and  little  minds  go  ill  together."  When  Marc  Antony,  the 
great  Triumvir  of  Rome,  who  conquered  Egypt,  was  himself 
overthrown  by  Octavius  Caesar,  he  gloried  dying  that  he  "  had 
conquered  as  a  Roman,  and  was  by  a  Roman  nobly  conquered." 
If  the  spirit  of  those  brave  soldiers  of  the  Union,  who,  while 
the  fields  of  battle  were  yet  moist  with  blood,  saluted  Lee,  had 
guided  the  conduct  of  the  civilians  to  whom  their  valor  gave 
the  reins  of  State,  it  would  have  been  for  us  Confederates  who 
achieved  great  victories,  and  were  in  turn  cast  down,  to  have 
gloried  likewise,  that  we  in  our  time  had  conquered  as  Ameri 
cans,  and  were  by  Americans  nobly  conquered.  But  when  we 
recall  that  our  honored  and  faithful  President  is  disfranchised 
simply  because  he  was  our  chief,  and  bravely,  ably  served  our 
cause,  the  iron  enters  our  souls  and  represses  the  generous 
emotions  that  well  up  in  them.  And  we  can  only  lament  that 
shallow  politicians  have  proven  unworthy  of  the  American  name, 
and  are  not  imbued  with  the  great  free  spirit  of  a  great  free 
people.  We  have  not  a  thought  or  fancy  or  desire  to  undo  the 
perpetuity  of  the  Union.  For  any  man  to  pretend  to  think 
otherwise  is  proclamation  of  his  falsehood,  or  his  folly.  But 
we  intend  to  be  free  citizens  of  the  Union,  accepting  no  badge 
of  inferiority  or  hishonor.  And  by  the  tomb  of  our  dead  hero, 
who  was  true  to  his  chief,  as  to  every  trust,  we  protest  to  man 
kind  against  this  unjust  thing ;  an  offence  to  our  liberties  and 
to  our  manhood,  which  are  not  less  sacred  than  the  grave. 

And  we  waft  to  him,  our  late  Chief  Magistrate,  in  his  South 
ern  home,  our  greetings  and  our  blessings ;  and  as  the  years  grow 
thick  upon  him,  we  pray  that  he  may  find  in  the  unabated 
confidence  and  affection  of  his  people,  some  solace  for  all  that 
he  has  borne  for  them  ;  and  in  the  strength  that  cometh  from 
on  high,  a  staff  that  man  cannot  take  from  him. 

MEDITATIONS  OF  DUTY. 

While  General  Lee  thus  sustained  and  cheered  his  country 
men,  the  problem  soon  began  to  press,  what  should  he  do  with 


53 

himself  ?  And  had  he  been  in  any  sense  a  self-seeker,  the  solu 
tion  had  been  easy,  for  many  were  the  overtures  and  proffers 
made  to  him  in  every  form  of  interested  solicitation,  and  dis 
interested  generosity.  Would  he  seek  recreation  from  the 
trials  which  for  years  had  strained  every  energy  of  mind  and 
body,  and  every  emotion  of  his  heart, — the  palaces  of  European 
nobility,  the  homes  of  the  Old  World  and  the  Xew,  alike,  opened 
their  doors  to  him  as  a  welcome  and  honored  guest.  Would 
he  prolong  his  military  career  ?  More  than  one  potentate  would 
have  been  proud  to  receive  into  his  service  his  famous  sword. 
Would  he  retrieve  his  fortunes  and  surround  his  declining  years 
with  luxury  and  wealth?  He  had  but  to  yield  the  sanction  of 
his  name  to  any  one  of  the  many  enterprises  that  commercial 
princes  commended  to  his  favor,  with  every  assurance  of  munifi 
cent  reward.  And  indeed,  were  he  willing  to  accept,  unlimited 
means  were  placed  at  his  disposal  by  those  who  would  have  been 
proud  to  render  him  any  service. 

But  it  had  been  the  principle  of  Lee's  life  to  accept  no 
gratuitous  offer.  He  had  declined  the  gift  of  a  home  tendered 
to  him  by  the  citizens  of  Richmond  during  the  war,  when 
Arlington  had  been  confiscated,  arid  the  refuge  of  his  family, 
the  "White  House,"  had  been  burned, — expressing  the  hope 
that  those  who  offered  the  gift  would  devote  the  means  re 
quired  "to  the  relief  of  the  families  of  our  soldiers  in  the 
field,  who  are  more  deserving  of  assistance,  and  more  in  want 
of  it  than  myself."  And  now  when  an  English  nobleman  pre 
sented  him  as  a'retreat  a  spiendid  country  seat  in  England, 
with  a  handsome  annuity  to  correspond,  lie  answered  :  "I  am 
deeply  grateful,  but  I  cannot  consent  to  desert  my  native  State 
in  the  hour  of  her  adversity.  I  must  abide  her  fortunes  and 
share  her  fate."  And  declining  also  the  many  positions  with 
lucrative  salaries  which  were  urged  upon  his  acceptance,  it  was 
his  intention  to  locate  in  one  of  the  Southside  counties  of  Vir 
ginia,  "  upon  a  small  farm  where  he  might  earn  his  daily 
bread  "  in  cultivating  the  soil,  and  at  the  same  time  to  write  a 
history  of  his  campaigns;  "  not,v  as  he  said,  "to  vindicate 
myself,  and  promote  m^T  own  reputation,  but  to  show  the  world 


54 

what  our  poor  boys  with  their  small  numbers  and   scant  re 
sources  had  succeeded  in  accomplishing." 

But  circumstances,  then  to  him  unknown,  were  bringing  an 
event  to  pass  which  turned  over  a  new  and  unexpected  leaf  in 
his  history — an  event  which  made  a  little  scion  of  knowledge, 
which  had  been  nurtured  through  the  storms  of  the  Colonial 
Revolution,  a  great  and  noble  University,  and  which  now  has 
associated  in  the  glorious  work  of  education,  as  in  glorious  deeds 
of  arms,  the  twin  names  of  Washington  and  Lee. 

LIBEKTY    HALL    ACADEMY. 

It  was  nearly  a  century  after  the  settlement  at  Jamestown, 
that  Governor  Spotswood  of  Virginia,  at  the  head  of  a  troop 
of  horse,  first  explored  the  hitherto  unknown  land  beyond  the 
mountains,  and  upon  his  return  from  the  expedition,  the  Gov 
ernor  presented  to  each  of  his  bold  companions  a  golden  horse 
shoe,  inscribed  with  the  legend  :  "  Sic  jurat  transcend&re 
monies"  as  a  memorial  of  the  event;  a  circumstance  vvhich 
caused  them  to  be  named  in  history,  "  The  Knights  of  the 
Golden  Horseshoe."  In  August,  1716,  these  adventurous  spirits 
first  looked  down  from  the  heights  of  the  Blue  Ridge  upon  the 
beautiful  Valley  of  Virginia, — a  virgin  land  indeed,  tenanted 
only  by  the  roving  red  men.  Glorious  must  have  been  the 
thrill  of  joy  that  quickened  their  hearts,  as  the  tempting  vision 
lay  spread  before  them,  as  their  eyes  ranged  over  the  fields  and 
forests  of  this  new  land  of  promise  in  its  summer  sheen, — a 
land  watered  with  many  rivers,  and  especially  with  that  beau 
tiful  and  abounding  river,  "  the  Shenandoah,"  which  the  Indians 
named  "The  Daughter  of  the  Stars." 

But  prophetic  as  may  have  been  the  glance  that  saw  in  the 
fruitful  valley  the  future  home  of  a  great  and  thriving  people, 
slow  were  the  footsteps  that  followed  the  pioneers  and  occupied 
the  hunting-grounds  of  the  receding  Indians.  For  in  those 
days  immigration  was  not  quickened  by  steam  and  electricity, 
and  early  tradition  had  pictured  the  transmontane  country  as  a 
barren  and  gloomy  waste,  infested  with  serpents  and  wild  beasts 
and  brutal  savages. 


55 

l»ut  erewhile  the  reports  of  Spotswood  andjiis  men  went  for 
and  wide,  and  the  Star  of  Empire  beamed  over  the  Allegha- 
nies.  And  along  in  1730  and  1740,  we  find  the  spray  of  the 
incoming  tide  breaking  over  the  mountains — the  sturdy  Scotch- 
Irish  fftr  the  most  part,  with  some  Germans  and  Englishmen, 
pouring  into  the  Valley  from  Pennsylvania  and  Eastern  Vir 
ginia,  and  from  the  fatherlands  over  the  water.  Not  speculative 
adventurers  were  they,  with  the  ambition  of  landlords,  but  bring 
ing  with  them  rifle  and  Bible,  wife  and  child,  and  simple  house 
hold  goods — home-seekers  and  home-builders,  who  had  heard 
of  the  goodly  land,  and  who  had  come  to  stay,  and  who  built 
the  meeting-house  and  the  school-house  side  by  side  when  they 
came.  Rough  men  were  they — ready  to  hew  their  way  to  free 
and  pleasant  homes — but  in  nowise  coarse  men,  for  they  were 
filled  with  high  purpose,  and  religion  and  knowledge  they  knew 
should  be  hand-maids  of  each  other.  And  showing  their  in 
stinctive  refinement, — where  the  corn  waved  its  tassels  and  the 
wheat  bowed  to  the  wind,  by  their  rude  log  huts  in  the  wilder 
ness  there  also  the  vine  clambered,  and  the  rose  and  lily  bloomed. 

In  1749,  near  Greeneville,  in  Augusta  county — and  Augusta 
county  was  then  an  empire  stretching  from  the  Blue  Ridge 
mountains  to  the  Mississippi  river — in  1749  Robert  Alexander, 
a  Scotch-Irish  immigrant,  who  was  a  Master  of  Arts  of  Trinity 
College,  Dublin,  established  there  '' The  Augusta  Academy "- 
the'first  classical  school  in  the  Valley  of  Virginia.  Under  his 
successor,  Rev.  John  Brown,  the  academy  was  first  moved  to 
"  Old  Providence,1'  and  again  to  "  New  Providence  church," 
and  just  before  the  Revolution,  for  a  third  time,  to  Mount 
Pleasant,  near  Fail-field,  in  the  now  county  of  Rockbridge. 

In  1776,  as  the  revolutionary  fires  were  kindling,  there  came 
to  its  head  as  principal  William  Graham,  of  worthy  memory, 
who  had  been  a  class-mate  and  special  friend  of  Harry  Lee  at 
Princeton  College  ;  and  at  the  first  meeting  of  the  trustees 
after  the  battle  of  Lexington,  while  Harry  Lee  was  donning 
his  sword  for  battle,  they  baptized  it  as  "Liberty  Hall  Academy/' 
Another  removal  followed,  in  1777,  to  near  the  old  Timber- 
Ridge  church  ;  but  finally,  in  1785,  the  academy  rested  from 


56 

its  wanderings  near  Lexington,  the  little  town  which  too  had 
caught  the  flame  of  revolution,  and  was  the  first  to  take  the 
name  of  that  early  battle-ground  of  the  great  rebellion,  where 

"  The  embattled  farmers  stood 
And  fired  the  shot  heard  round  the  world." 

WASHINGTON    ACADEMY    AND    WASHINGTON    COLLEGE. 

Shortly  after  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  war,  the  Legis 
lature  of  Virginia,  in  token  of  esteem  and  admiration  for  the 
virtues  and  services  of  General  George  Washington,  donated 
him  one  hundred  shares  of  stock  in  the  old  James  River  Com 
pany.  General  Washington,  in  a  characteristic  manner,  declined 
to  accept  the  donation  save  only  on  the  condition  that  he  be 
permitted  to  appropriate  it  to  some  public  purpose  uin  the 
upper  part  of  the  State,"  such  as  "  the  education  of  the  chil 
dren  of  the  poor,  particularly  the  children  of  such  as  have  fallen 
iri  defence  of  the  country."  The  condition  granted,  President 
Washington,  in  1796 — for  he  had  then  become  President  of 
the  New  Republic — dedicated  the  one  hundred  shares  of  stock 
"  to  the  use  of  Liberty  Hall  Academy  in  Rockbridge  county." 
Mayhap  the  friendship  between  William  Graham,  its  principal, 
and  his  old  class-mate  at  Princeton,  "  Light  Horse  Harry  Lee," 
the  friend  of  Washington,  had  something  to  ojo  in  guiding  the 
benefaction  ;  but  be  this  as  it  may,  it  was  given  and  accepted, 
and  in  honor  of  the  benefactor  the  academy  was  clothed  with 
his  immortal  name. 

In  acknowledging  the  thanks  expressed  to  him  by  the  Board 
of  Trustees,  President  Washington  said  :  "  To  promote  litera 
ture  in  this  rising  empire  and  to  encourage  the  arts  has  ever 
been  amongst  the  warmest  wishes  of  my  heart ;  and  if  the  do 
nation  which  the  generosity  of  the  Legislature  of  the  Common 
wealth  has  enabled  me  to  bestow  upon  Liberty  Hall — now  by 
your  politeness  called  Washington  Academy — is  likely  to  prove 
a  means  to  accomplish  these  ends,  it  will  contribute  to  the 
gratification  of  my  desires." 

Soon  after  this,  the  Legislature,  which  had  already  incorpo 
rated  the  institution  on  a  comprehensive  basis,  gave  it  the  name 


57 

of  "  The  College  of  Washington  in  Virginia  " — a  name,  how 
ever,  which  the  trustees  did  not  accept  until  1812.*  In  the  spirit 
of  their  beloved  commander,  "  The  Cincinnati  Society,''  com 
posed  of  survivors  of  the  Revolutionary  war,  on  dissolving  in 
1803,  donated  their  funds,  amounting  to  nearly  $25,000,  to  the 
institution  which  had  received  his  patronage  and  bore  his  name  ; 
and,  thus  endowed,  it  went  forward  in  a  career  which,  for  nearly 
three-score  years  and  ten,  was  a  period  of  uninterrupted  useful 
ness,  prosperity  and  honor. 

All  ranks  of  honorable  enterprise  and  ambition  "  in  this  rising 
empire  "  felt  the  impress  of  the  noble  spirits  who  came  forth 
from  its  halls,  trained  and  equipped  for  life's  arduous  tasks  with 
keenest  weapons  and  brightest  armor.  What  glowing  names 
are  these  that  shine  on  the  rolls  of  the  alumni  of  this  honored 
Alma  Mater!  Church  and  State,  Field  and  Forum,  Bar  and 
Bench,  Hospital  and  Counting-Room,  Lecture-Room  and  Pulpit 
— what  famous  champions  and  teachers  of  the  right,  what  trusty 
workers  and  leaders  in  literature  and  law,  and  arts,  and  arms, 
have  they  not  found  in  her  sons !  Seven  Governors  of  States — 
amongst  them  Crittenden,  of  Kentucky,  and  McDowell,  Letcher, 
and  Kemper,  of  Virginia;  eleven  United  States  Senators — 
amongst  them  Parker,  of  Virginia,  Breckinridge,  of  Kentucky, 
H.  S.  Foote,  of  Mississippi,  and  William  C.  Preston,  of  South 
Carolina ;  more  than  a  score  of  Congressmen,  two-score  and 
more  of  judges — amongst  them  Trimble,  of  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court ;  Coalter,  Allen,  Anderson,  and  Burks,  of  the 
Court  of  Appeals  of  Virginia;  twelve  or  more  college  presi 
dents,  and  amongst  them  Moses  Hoge  and  Archibald  Alexan 
der,  of  Hampden-Sidney,  James  Priestly,  of  Cumberland 
College,  Tennessee  ;  and  G.  A.  Baxter  and  Henry  Ruffner  (who 
presided  here),  and  Socrates  Maupin,  of  the  University  of  Vir 
ginia.  These  are  but  a  few  of  those  who  here  garnered  the 
learning  that  shed  so  gracious  a  light  in  the  after-time  on  them, 
their  country,  and  their  Alma  Mater.  And  could  I  pause  to 

*  In  1796  the  Legislature  of  Virginia  undertook  to  erect  the  Academy  into  a 
College  under  the  name  of  the  "  College  of  Washington."  The  board  of  trustees 
resisted  the  enactment  as  an  infringement  of  the  rights  of  the  corporation  :  and 
their  grave  and  forcible  protest  was  said  by  the  late  Hugh  Blair  Grigsby,  in  an 
address  delivered  in  1870,  to  have  been  the  basis  of  the  brief  of  Mr.  Webster  in 
the  great  Dartmouth  College  case.  The  act  was  repealed  in  response  to  this  re* 
monstrance.  The  name  of  Washington  College  was  finally  adopted  in  1812. 


speak  of  those  who  became  valiant  leaders  of  men  in  battle,  1 
could  name  many  a  noble  soldier  whose  eye  greets  mine  to-day; 
and,  alas !  I  should  recall  the  form  of  many  a  hero  who  passed 
from  these  halls  in  the  flush  of  youthful  manhood,  and  has  long 
slept  with  "the  unreturning  brave;"  for  in  1861,  when  the 
calls  to  arms  resounded,  "  The  Liberty-Hall  Volunteers  " — the 
students  of  Washington  College — were  among  the  first  (and  in 
a  body)  to  respond ;  and  when  the  quiet  professor  of  your  twin 
institute  was  baptized  in  history  as  "Stonewall  Jackson,"  their 
blood  overflowed  the  christening  urn  and  reddened  Manassas' 
field,  and  from  Manassas  to  Appomattox,  under  Joseph  E. 
Johnston,  and  Thomas  J.  Jackson,  and  Robert  E.  Lee,  the  boys 
and  the  men  of  Washington  College  proved  that  they  were 
worthy  of  their  leaders,  worthy  of  their  State  and  country,  and 
worthy  of  all  crood  fame. 

t/  O 

THE    FATE    OF    WAR. 

Unsparing  war  spared  not  the  shrine  where  breathed  into  the 
arts  of  peace,  yet  lived  the  spirit  and  was  perpetuated  the  name 
of  the  Father  of  his  Country.  When  in  1864  David  Hunter 
led  an  invading  army  against  the  State  from  whose  blood  he 
sprung,  he  came  not  as  comes  the  noble  champion  eager  to  strike 
the  strong,  and  who  realizes  that  he  meets  an  equal  and  a  gen 
erous  foe.  Lee  had  penetrated  the  year  before  to  the  heart  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  the  Southern  infantry  had  bivouacked  on 
the  banks  of  the  Susquehanna. 

When  he  crossed  the  Pennsylvania  line,  he  had  announced  in 
general  orders,  from  the  headquarters  of  the  Army  of  Northern 
Virginia,  that  he  did  not  come  to  "take  vengeance;"  that  "  we 
make  war  only  upon  armed  men,"  and  he  therefore  "  earnestly 
exhorted  the  troops  to  abstain  with  most  scrupulous  care  from 
unnecessary  or  wanton  injury  of  private  property,"  and  "  en 
joined  upon  all  officers  to  arrest  and  bring  to  summary  punish 
ment  all  who  should  in  any  way  offend  against  the  orders  on 
the  subject."  He  had  been  obeyed  by  his  lieutenants  and  his 
men.  Xo  charred  ruins,  no  devastated  fields,  no  plundered 
homes  marked  the  line  of  his  march.  On  one  occasion,  to  set 


a  good  example,  he  was  seen  to  dismount  from  his  horse  and 
put  up  a  farmer's  fence.  In  the  city  of  York  General  Early 
had  in  general  orders  prohibited  the  burning  of  buildings  con 
taining  stores  of  war,  lest  fire  mio;ht  be  communicated  to  neio-h- 

o  -  O  O 

boring  homes ;  and  General  Gordon,  in  his  public  address,  had 
declared  :  "If  a  torch  is  applied  to  a  single  dwelling,  or  an  in 
sult  offered  to  a  female  of  your  town  by  a  soldier  of  this  com 
mand,  point  me  out  the  man,  and  you  shall  have  his  life."  The 
battle  of  Gettysburg  had  raged  around  Gettysburg  College, 
but  when  it  ended  the  college  stood  scathless,  save  by  the  acci 
dents  of  war.  But  when  David  Hunter  invaded  Virginia,  he 
came  to  make  war  on  the  weak  and  helpless,  and  he  was  as 
ruthless  to  ruin  as  he  was  swift  to  evade  battle  and  to  retreat. 
He  blistered  the  land  which  he  should  have  loved  and  honored, 
and  a  broad,  black  path  marked  his  trail.  From  the  summit 
of  those  mountains  where  Spotswood  first  spied  the  Valley, 
could  be  counted  at  one  time  the  flames  ascending  from  118 
burning  houses.  The  Virginia  Military  Institute  was  burned, 
and  the  very  statue  of  Washington  which  adorned  it  was  carried 
off  as  a  trophy.  Washington  College  was  dismantled,  its  scien 
tific  apparatus  destroyed,  its  library  sacked,  its  every  apartment 
pillaged.  The  hand  of  war  indeed  fell  heavily  here,  and  when 
the  Southern  cause  went  down  at  Appomattox,  Washington 
College  remained  scarce  more  than  a  ruinous  and  desolate  relic 
of  better  days.  Four  professors,  a  handful  of  students,  and  the 
bare  buildings,  were  all  that  was  left  of  it. 

PRESIDENT    OF    WASHINGTON    COLLEGE. 

In  August,  1865,  the  trustees  of  Washington  College  met. 
The  situation  they  contemplated  was  deplorable  and  depressing. 
Their  invested  funds  were  unproductive.  Their  treasury  was 
empty.  The  State  was  prostrate  and  bankrupt.  In  the  sky  of 
the  future  there  was  scarcely  a  ray  of  light.  But  they  were 
resolved  to  face  difficulties  and  to  do  the  best  they  could.  One 
of  the  trustees,  Colonel  Bolivar  Christian,  of  Staunton,  sug 
gested  that  General  Lee  be  invited  to  accept  the  Presidency  of 
the  Institution.  There  was  but  little  anticipation  that  he  would 
incline  to  their  wishes.  The  position  could  not  be  very  remu- 

\ 


nerative,— it  involved  tedious  and  perplexing  tasks,  and  it  did 
not  seem  commensurate  with  the  abilities,  nor  altogether  fitting 
to  the  tastes  of  a  great  commander  who  had  so  long  dealt  with 
the  vast  and  active  concerns  of  military  life  ;  but  the  sugges 
tion  was  unanimously  adopted,  and  Hon.  John  W.  Brocken- 
brough,  Rector  of  the  Board,  was  appointed  to  apprise  General 
Lee  of  the  fact.  At  first  General  Lee  hesitated.  He  modestly 
distrusted  his  own  competency  to  fulfill  the  trust,  and  he  feared 
that  the  hostility  of  the  Government  towards  him  might  direct 
adverse  influences  against  the  Institution  which  it  was  proposed 
to  commit  to  his  care.  These  considerations  being  successfully 
combated  by  those  who  knew  how  high  his  qualifications  were, 
and  how  great  were  his  attractions,  General  Lee  accepted  the 
position  tendered  him,  and  on  the  2nd  of  October,  1865,  he 
took  the  oath  of  office  before  the  Rev.  W.  S.  White — the  old 
est  Christian  minister  of  Lexington — and  was  duly  installed  in 
the  presence  of  the  trustees,  professors,  and  students,  as  Presi 
dent  of  Washington  College.  On  the  eve  of  acceptance,  two 
propositions  were  made  to  General  Lee  :  one  to  become  Presi. 
dent  of  a  large  corporation,  with  a  salary  of  $10,000  per  annum  ; 
another  to  take  the  like  office  in  another  corporation,  with  a 
salary  of  $50,000.  But  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  come 
here,  and  this  is  what  he  said  to  a  friend  who  brought  him  the 
last  munificent  offer  : 

"I  have  a  self-imposed  task  which  I  must  accomplish.  I  have 
lead  the  young  men  of  the  South  in  battle;  I  have  seen  many 
of  them  fall  under  my  standard.  I  shall  devote  mv  life  now 
to  training  young  men  to  do  their  duty  in  life." 

This  was  the  high  resolve  that  brought  him  here,  and  Robert 
E.  Lee  seemed  to  be  the  great,  heroic  Captain  when  he  stood 
before  the  Virginia  Convention  with  superb  courage  and  daunt 
less  mien,  and  "devoted  his  sword  to  his  native  State,"  he 
seemed  informed  with  a  spirit  that  gathered  its  strength  and 
loveliness  from  Heaven,  when  he  stood  here  and  consecrated 
his  remaining  years  to  training  up  to  life's  duties,  the  sons. 
brothers  and  comrades  of  those  who  had  followed  him  in  bat 
tle.  Young  men  of  the  South !  to  him  who  thus  stood  by 


61 

us,  we  owe  a  debt  immeasurable,  and  as  long  as  our  race  is  upon 
earth,  let  our  children  and  our  children's  childen  hold  that  debt 
sacred. 

GENERAL  LEE's  ADMINISTRATION  AS  COLLEGE  PRESIDENT. 

General  Lee  was  eminently  qualified  for  the  task  assumed. 
His  own  education  had  been  liberal  and  thorough.  In  his 
youth  he  had  been  grounded  by  his  tutors  in  a  knowledge  of 
ancient  history,  and  of  the  dead  languages,  the  Latin  and  the 
Greek,  and  the  tastes  thus  early  stimulated  had  been  preserved 
and  cultivated  in  after  years.  As  a  cadet  at  West  Point  he 
graduated  second  in  a  distinguished  class,  excellence  of  conduct 
and  excellence  of  attainment  going  hand  in  hand.  Appointed 
an  officer  of  Engineers  when  he  entered  the  army,  and  often 
charged  with  most  important  works,  the  duties  devolved  upon 
him  required  assiduous  study  and  research.  Still  later,  after  he 
returned  with  great  distinction  from  Mexico,  he  became  the 
Superintendent  and  Head  of  the  Military  Academy  at  West 
Point,  and  occupying  that  position  for  three  years,  he  acquired 
experience  and  developed  capacities  which  singularly  fitted  him 
for  the  sphere  which  he  now  entered — the  training  of  youth. 
It  is  indicative  of  his  comprehensive  views  of  education,  that 
during  his  superintendency  at  West  Point,  the  course  of  study 
was  extended  to  five  years  and  greatly  enlarged  in  its  scope. 
And  when  he  entered  upon  his  duties  here,  it  was  soon  evident 
that  he  possessed  every  qualification  to  direct  with  signal  suc 
cess,  the  affairs  of  the  Institution,  and  to  mould  the  characters 
and  minds  of  those  confided  to  his  care. 

It  was  understood  from  the  time  of  his  inauguration  that  he 
would  not  himself  act  as  teacher  of  any  class  ;  but  would  have 
in  charge  the  business  and  financial  concerns  of  the  College — 
its  educational  curriculum,  and  the  discipline  of  its  students ; 
and  from  first  to  last,  he  devoted  himself  to  these  tasks  with  un 
ceasing  assiduity  and  success. 

Everything  here  felt  with  his  presence  a  renovating  and  pro 
gressive  impulse.  Nothing  escaped  his  attention,  from  the 
smallest  detail  of  business  to  the  gravest  question  of  educa- 


tional  policy ;  and  in  whatever  concerned  the  well-being  of 
the  College,  its  Faculty  and  its  students,  his  discerning  judg 
ment  and  his  sympathetic  heart  worked  out  the  right  result. 
Under  his  supervision  the  buildings  were  repaired,  the  accom 
modations  enlarged,  the  chemical  and  philosophical  apparatus 
replaced,  the  library  replenished  and  reformed.  He  it  was  who 
selected  the  site  of  yon  Chapel  which  now  guard  his  mortal 
remains — his  was  the  hand  that  draughted  the  plan,  and  his 
the  eye  that  saw  its  parts  conjoined  together.  No  figure-head 
was  he,  but  a  worker,  and  doer,  bringing  things  to  pass  as  they 
should  be. 

Prior  to  his  administration,  there  were  but  five  Chairs  of  In 
struction,  several  Departments  being  combined  under  one  pro 
fessional  head  : 

1.  Mental  and  Moral  Science,  and  political  economy. 

2.  Latin  Language  and  Literature. 

3.  Greek  Language  and  Literature. 

4.  Mathematics  and  Physical  Science. 

5.  Chemistry  and  Natural  Philosophy. 

Speedily  after  his  accession,  three  new  Chairs  were  added, 
and  Professors  elected  to  fill  them  ;  the  Chair  of  Natural  Phi 
losophy,  embracing,  in  addition  to  physics,  Acoustics,  Optics, 
ifcc.,  the  various  subjects  of  Natural  and  Applied  Mechanics; 
the  Chair  of  Applied  Mathematics,  embracing  Astronomy, 
Civil  and  Military  Engineering ;  and  Chair  of  Modern  Lan 
guages,  to  which  was  added  English  Philosophy.  In  the 
second  year  of  his  incumbency  the  Chair  of  History  and  English 
Literature  was  established,  and  soon  afterwards  the  department 
of  "  Law  and  Equity,"  under  that  eminent  jurist,  Judge  John 
W.  Brockenbrough. 

Several  other  Chairs  were  included  in  the  President's  pro 
gramme,  one  of  the  "English  Language,"  one  of  "Applied 
Chemistry,"  and  also,  "  A  School  of  Medicine,"  a  "  School  of 

Journalism  "  and  a  "  School  of  Commerce  " — the  latter  beino- 

?•> 

designed  to  give  special  instruction  and  systematic  training  in 
whatever  pertained  to  business  in  the  most  enlarged  sense  of  the 
term.  Amongst  other  changes  introduced  by  General  Lee  was 


63 

the  substitution  of  the  elective  system  instead  of  %a  fixed  curri 
culum  ;  and  the  system  of  discipline  which  he  adopted,  in  no 
wise  partaking  of  the  military  type,  to  which  it  might  have 
been  supposed  his  disposition  would  incline — was  that  which 
has  so  long  prospered  at  the  University  of  Virginia ;  a  system 
which  ignored  espionage  and  compulsion,  and  put  every  stu 
dent  upon  a  manly  sense  of  honor — a  system  which,  especially 
with  young  men  not  too  immature  to  appreciate  it,  and  which, 
with  all  men  who  have  the  capacity  of  being  gentlemen,  is  the 
best  calculated  to  develop  the  virtuous  and  independent  ele 
ments  of  character.  Here  for  five  years  the  General  devoted 
himself  to  the  cause  of  education,  and  here  under  him  that 
cause  nobly  flourished.  Here  he  demonstrated  that  compre 
hensive  grasp  of  every  subject  connected  with  his  sphere  ;  and 
the  keen  appehension  of  the  demands  of  this  progressive  age, 
and  of  a  land  entering  as  it  were  upon  a  new  birth.  His  asso 
ciates  in  the  Faculty  loved  him  as  a  father,  and  all  who  saw  or 
knew  his  work,  with  common  voice  proclaimed  the  conviction 
expressed  by  one  of  the  most  distinguished  of  his  associates, 
that  he  was  "  the  best  College  President  that  this  country  has 
ever  produced." 

His  work  has  been  established,  and  though  the  great  Chief 
has  u  fallen  by  the  way,"  one  who  bears  his  name,  and  who  is 
worthy  of  it,  has  taken  up  the  lines  that  fell  from  his  hands ; 
and  under  him,  with  God's  blessing,  the  good  cause  goes  on 
prospering  and  to  prosper. 

And  so  happily  it  has  come  to  pass  that  the  little  school  of 
the  pioneers,  planted  in  the  wilderness,  is  to-day  a  great  univer 
sity  ;  that  the  ambition  of  William  Graham,  the  college  mate 
of  Henry  Lee,  has  been  realized  beyond  its  sweet*est  dream  ; 
that  the  college  which  the  Father  of  his  Country  lifted  up 
by  his  generosity  from  a  struggling  academy  to  educate  the 
children  of  those  who  had  fallen  in  its  defense,  and  which  was 
blighted  to  the  verge  of  destruction,  has  been  restored  and 
magnified  by  the  hand  of  him  who  alone  of  all  men,  living  or 
dead,  now  equally  shares  with  his  illustrious  prototype,  the 
eulogy  pronounced  by  his  own  sire,  Light  Horse  Harry  Lee: 


64 

"  First  in  Peace,  first  in  War,  and  first  in  the  hearts  of  his 
Countrymen.^ 

LEE  THE  MAX — HIS  PERSONAL  APPEARANCE. 

Thus  feebly  and  imperfectly  have  I  attempted  to  trace  the 
military  achievements  and  services  of  him  to  whose  memory 
this  day  is  dedicated.  Lee  the  General,  stands  abreast  with  the 
greatest  captains  of  all  time,  and  Lee  the  Patriot,  has  universal 
homage.  It  is  now  of  Lee  the  Man,  that  I  would  speak : 

In  personal  appearance,  General  Lee  was  a  man  whom  once 
to  see  was  ever  to  remember.  His  figure  was  tall,  erect,  well 
proportioned,  lithe  and  graceful.  A  fine  head,  with  broad, 
uplifted  brow,  and  features  boldly  but  yet  delicately  chiseled, 
bore  the  high  aspect  of  one  born  to  command.  The  firm  yet 
mobile  lips,  and  the  thick-set  jaw,  were  expressive  of  daring 
and  resolution ;  and  the  dark  scintillant  eye  flashed  with  the 
light  of  a  brilliant  intellect  and  a  fearless  spirit.  His  whole 
countenance,  indeed,  bespoke  alike  a  powerful  mind,  and  in 
domitable  will,  yet  beamed  with  charity,  gentleness  and  benev 
olence.  In  his  mariners,  quiet,  reserve,  unaffected  courtesy  and 
native  dignity,  made  manifest  the  character  of  one  who  can 
only  be  described  by  the  name  of  gentleman.  And  taken  all 
*  in  all,  his  presence  possessed  that  grave  and  simple  majesty 
which  commanded  instant  reverence  and  repressed  familiarity  ; 
and  yet  so  charmed  by  a  certain  modesty  and  gracious  defer 
ence,  that  reverence  and  confidence  were  ever  ready  to  kindle 
into  affection.  It  was  impossible  to  look  upon  him,  and  not  to 
recognize  at  a  glance  that  in  him,  nature  gave  assurance  of  a 
man  created  great  and  good. 

Mounted  in  the  field,  and  at  the  head  of  his  troops,  a  glimpse 
of  Lee  was  an  inspiration.  His  figure  was  as  distinctive  as  that 
of  Napoleon.  Ah !  soldiers !  who  can  forget  it  ?  The  black 
slouch  hat,  the  cavalry  boots,  the  dark  cape,  the  plain  gray  coat 
without  an  ornament  but  the  three  stars  on  the  collar,  the  calm, 
victorious  face,  the  splendid,  manly  figure  on  the  gray  warhorse, 
that  steps  as  if  proudly  conscious  of  his  rider  ;  he  looked  every 


65 

inch  the  true  knight — the  grand,  invincible  champion  of  a  great 
principle. 

MENTAL    ATTRIBUTES    AND    ATTAINMENTS. 

The  intellectual  abilities  of  General  Lee  were  of  the  highest 
order,  and  his  attainments,  scientific  and  literary,  were  remark 
able  for  one  who  had  devoted  so  many  years  of  his  life  to  the 
exacting  duties  and  details  of  the  camp  and  the  field.  He  read 
much,  digested  what  he  read,  and  amplified  his  readings  with 
reflective  power.  But  so  modest  and  unpretentious  was  he — 
so  chastened  and  retiring  was  his  ambition,  and  his  overshad 
owing  military  exploits  had  so  fixed  the  admiring  gaze  of  men, 
that  when  he  came  here  few  knew  how  rare  were  the  accom 
plishments,  and  how  versatile  and  adaptive  was  the  genius  of 
the  gentleman  who  seemed  by  nature  framed  to  lead  the  ranks 
and  grace  the  habiliments  of  war.  The  training,  habits  and 
occupations  of  the  soldier  seldom  guide  his  footsteps  to  classic 
haunts,  and  when  the  great  Captain  is  unhorsed  and  his  trap 
pings  disappear,  how  often  do  we  find  that  the  soldier  was  a 
soldier  only,  and  nothing  more.  But  when  Lee  the  soldier 
stepped  forth  in  civic  dress,  it  was  soon  evident  to  all,  as  it  had 
been  previously  to  those  who  knew  him  best,  that  here  was  one 
full  panoplied  to  dignify  and  adorn  any  civic  station  ;  one  who 
disclosed  himself  in  wide  converse  and  correspondence  em 
bracing  all  manner  of  delicate  and  difficult  situations,  to  possess 
that  quality  which  is  the  consummate  flower  of  wisdom — 
unerring  judgment  combined  with  exquisite  taste.  The  litera 
ture  that  may  be  found  in  the  letters  of  the  great,  unfolds  the 
very  essence  of  the  genius  of  the  men  and  of  the  times  they 
lived  in  ;  and  in  my  humble  judgment  it  were  sufficient  to  read 
the  letters  written  by  General  Lee,  and  which  are  collated  in  the 
beautiful  memorial  volume*  prepared  by  Rev.  Dr.  J.  Wm. 
Jones,  to  discern  that  the  writer  was  one  who  profoundly  com 
prehended  the  topics  of  the  day,  and  wielded  a  pen  as  vigorous 
and  polished  as  his  sword.  And  when  we  contemplate  in  con 
nection  with  his  deeds  the  fair  and  lofty  character  that  is 

*  ''  Personal  Reminiscences,  Anecdotes  and  Letters  of  General  K.  E.  Lee," 
by  <T."  Win.  Jones,  Secretary  .Southern  Historical  Society. 


66 

mirrored  in  them,  we  behold  one  whose  strong,  equitable  and 
wide-reaching  mind  was  such  that  had  he  devoted  it  to  juris 
prudence,  had  made  the  name  of  Justice  as  venerable  and  august 
as  wThen  a  Marshall  enunciated  the  law ;  who,  had  he  been  a 
statesman,  had  moulded  the  institutions  of  his  country,  and 
guided  its  political  currents  with  as  wise,  firm  and  temperate  a 
hand  as"  that  of  Washington ;  who,  had  he  headed  any  of  the 
great  corporate  enterprises  of  transportation,  commerce  or  de 
velopment  in  which  aggregated  capital  relies  on  scientific  saga 
city  for  great  works,  had  greatly  aided  the  solution  of  many 
perplexing  problems  that  now  agitate  the  public  mind  ;  who, 
had  he  bent  himself  to  literature,  had  produced  a  page  filled 
with  the  glory  and  dignity  of  philosophic  inquiry  or  historic 
truth — one  indeed  so  perfectly  balanced  in  mind  and  will,  so 
nobly  turned  in  moral  worth,  so  just  in  heart,  so  clear  in  thought, 
and  so  authoritative  in  direction  that  in  any  land  where  the 
common  sentiment  can  have  spontaneous  play,  would,  as  inevi 
tably  as  the  sparks  fly  upward,  and  by  a  law  scarce  less  fixed 
than  that  which  moves  the  planets  in  their  course,  have  been 
the  leading  man  in  whatever  he  undertook,  and  would  have 
been  called  by  one  voice  to  become  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the 
people. 

TRUE  HEROISM — THE  HEROISM  OF  LEE. 

As  little  things  make  up  the  sum  of  life,  so  they  reveal  the 
inward  nature  of  men  and  furnish  keys  to  history.  It  is  in  the 
office,  the  street,  the  field,  the  workshop,  and  by  the  fireside, 
that  men  show  what  stuff  they  are  made  of,  not  less  than  in 
those  eventful  actions  which  write  themselves  in  lightnings 
across  the  skies  and  mark  the  rise  and  fall  of  nations.  Nay, 
more — the  highest  attributes  of  human  nature  are  not  disclosed 
in  action,  but  in  self-restraint  and  repose.  "  Self-restraint,"  as 
has  been  truly  said  by  Thomas  Hughes,  "  is  the  highest  form 
of  self-assertion." 

It  is  harder,  as  every  soldier  knows,  to  lie  down  and  take  the 
fire  of  batteries  without  returning  it,  than  to  rise  and  charge  to 
the  cannon's  mouth.  It  is  harder  to  give  the  soft  answer  that 
turns  away  wrath  than  to  retort  a  word  with  a  blow.  De  Long, 


in  the  frozen  Arctic  wastes,  dying  alone  inch  by  inch  of  cold 
and  starvation,  yet  intent  on  his  work,  and  writing  lines  for 
the  benefit  of  others,  deserved,  as  well  as  the  Marshal  of  France 
who  received  it,  the  name  of  "  bravest  of  the  brave."  The 
artless  little  Alabama  girl,  who  was  guiding  General  Forrest 
along  a  dangerous  path  when  the  enemy  fired  a  volley  upon 
him,  and  who  instinctively  spread  her  skirts  and  cried  :  "  Get 
behind  me  !"  had  a  spirit  as  high  as  that  which  filled  the  bosom 
of  Joan  of  Arc  or  Charlotte  Corday. 

The  little  Holland  boy,  who,  seeing  the  water  oozing  through 
the  dyke,  and  the  town  near  by  about  to  be  deluged  and  de 
stroyed,  neither  cried  nor  ran,  but  stopped,  and  all  alone,  stifled 
the  opening  gap  with  earth,  in  instant  peril  of  being  swept  to 
death  unhonored  and  unknown,  showed  a  finer  and  nobler  fibre 
than  that  of  Cambronne  when  he  shouted  -to  the  conquering 
British  :  "  The  Guard  dies,  but  never  surrenders."  The  soldier 
of  Pompeii,  buried  at  his  post  standing  there,  and  flying  not 
from  the  hot  waves  of  lava  that  rolled  over  him,  tells  the  Roman 
story  in  grander  language  than  the  ruins  of  the  Coliseum.  And 
Ilerndon,  on  the  deck  of  his  ship,  doing  all  to  save  his  passen 
gers,  making  deliberate  choice  of  death  before  dishonor,  and 
going  down  into  the  great  deep  with  brow  calm  and  unruffled, 
is  a  grander  picture  of  true,  heroic  temper  than  that  of  Caesar 
leading  his  legions,  or  of  the  young  Corsican  at  the  Bridge  of 
Lodi. 

Amongst  the  quiet,  nameless  workers  of  the  world — in  the 
stubble  field  and  by  the  forge,  bending  over  a  sick  child's  bed 
or  smoothing  an  outcast's  pillow,  is  many  a  hero  and  heroine 
truer,  nobler  than  those  over  whose  brows  hang  plumes  and 
laurels. 

In  action  there  is  the  stimulus  of  excited  physical  faculties, 
and  of  the  moving  passions — but  in  the  composure  of  the  cairn 
mind  that  quietly  devotes  itself  to  hard  life-work—putting  aside 
temptations — contemplating  and  rising  superior  to  all  surround 
ings  of  adversity;-'  suffering,  danger  and  death,  man  is  revealed 
in  his  highest  manifestation.  Then,  and  then  alone,  he  seems 
to  have  redeemed  his  fallen  state,  and  to  be  recreated  in  God's 


08 

image.  At  the  bottom  of  all  true  heroism  is  unselfishness. 
Its  crowning  expression  is  sacrifice.  The  world  is  suspicious 
of  vaunted  heroes.  They  are  so  easily  manufactured.  So  many 
feet  are  cut  and  trimmed  to  fit  Cinderella's  slippers  that  we  hes 
itate  long  before  we  hail  the  Princess.  But  when  the  true 
Hero  has  come,  and  we  know  that  here  he  is,  in  verity,  Ah ! 
how  the  hearts  of  men  leap  forth  to  greet  him — how  worship- 
fully  we  welcome  God's  noblest  work — the  strong,  honest, 
fearless,  upright  man. 

In  Robert  Lee  was  such  a  hero  vouchsafed  to  us  and  to  man 
kind,  and  whether  we  behold  him  declining  command  of  the 
Federal  army  to  fight  the  battles  and  share  the  miseries  of  his 
own  people  ;  proclaiming  on  the  heights  in  front  of  Gettysburg 
that  the  fault  of  the  disaster  was  his  own  ;  leading  charges  in 
the  crisis  of  combat ;  walking  under  the  yoke  of  conquest  with 
out  a  murmur  of  complaint ;  or  refusing  fortunes  to  come  here 
and  train  the  youth  of  his  country  in  the  path  of  duty — he  is 
ever  the  same  meek,  grand,  self-sacrificing  spirit.  Here  he 
exhibited  qualities  not  less  worthy  and  heroic  than  those  dis 
played  on  the  broad  and  open  theatre  of  conflict,  when  the  eyes 
of  nations  watched  his  every  action.  Here  in  the  calm  repose 
of  civil  and  domestic  duties,  and  in  the  trying  routine  of  inces 
sant  tasks,  he  lived  a  life  as  high  as  when,  day  by  day,  he  mar 
shalled  and  led  his  thin  and  wasting  lines,  and  slept  by  night 
upon  the  field  that  was  to  be  drenched  again  in  blood  upon 
the  morrow. 

Here  in  these  quiet  walks,  far  removed  from  "  war  or  battle's 
sound,"  came  into  view,  as  when  the  storm  o'er  past  the  moun 
tain  seems  a  pinnacle  of  light,  the  landscape  beams  with  fresher 
and  tenderer  beauties,  and  the  purple,  golden  clouds  fioat  above 
us  in  the  azure  depths  like  the  Islands  of  the  Blest,  so  came 
into  view  the  towering  grandeur,  the  massive  splendor  and  the 
•  loving  kindness  of  the  character  of  Genera*-  Lee,  and  the  very 
sorrows  that  overhung  his  life  seemed  luminous  with  celestial 
hues.  Here  he  revealed  in  manifold  gracious  kospitalities,  ten 
der  charities,  and  patient,  worthy  counsels,  how  deep  and  pure 
and  inexhaustible  were  the  fountains  of  his  virtues.  And  loving 


69 

hearts  delight  to  recall,  as  loving  lips  will  ever  delight  to  tell, 
the  thousand  little  things  he  did  which  sent  forth  lines  of  light 
to  irradiate  the  gloom  of  the  conquered  land,  and  to  lift  up  the 
hopes  and  cheer  the  works  of  the  people. 

Was  there  a  scheme  of  public  improvement  ?  He  took  hearty 
interest  in  promoting  its  success  in  every  way  he  could.  Was 
there  an  enterprise  of  charity,  or  education,  or  religion,  that 
needed  friendly  aid  ?  He  gave  it  according  to  his  store,  and 
sent  with  the  gift  words  that  were  deeds.  Was  there  a  poor 
soldier  in  distress  ?  Whoever  else  forgot  him,  it  was  not  Lee. 
Was  there  a  proud  spirit  chafing  under  defeat,  and  breaking 
forth  in  angry  complaints  and  criminations,  or  a  wanderer  who 
had  sought  in  other  lands  an  unvexed  retreat  denied  him  here? 
He  it  was  who  with  mild  voice  conjured  restraint  and  patience, 
recalled  the  wanderer  home  and  reared  above  the  desolate 
hearthstone  the  image  of  duty.  And  whosoever  mourned  the 
loved  and  lost,  who  had  died  in  vain  for  the  cause  now  perished, 
he  it  was  who  poured  into  the  stricken  heart  the  balm  of  sym 
pathy  and  consolation. 

Here,  indeed,  Lee,  no  longer  the  Leader,  became,  as  it  were, 
the  Priest  of  his  people,  and  the  young  men  of  Washington 
College  were  but  a  fragment  of  those  who  found  in  his  voice 
and  his  example  the  shining  signs  that  never  misguided  their 
footsteps. 

INCIDENTS  OF    HIS  LIFE  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS  OF    HIS  CHARACTER. 

Many  are  the  illustrations  and  incidents  which  show  how 
beautifully  blended  in  his  character  were  the  sterner  qualities 
that  command  respect,  with  the  gentle  traits  that  engage  affec 
tion.  And  his  quick  apprehension  of  every  natural  beautv, 
and  keen  sympathy,  for  all  living  things  show  the  exquisite 
sensibilities  of  his  heart.  His  letters  from  Mexico  teem  with 
expressions  of  the  delight  with  which  he  looked  upon  the 
bright-winged  birds  and  luxuriant  flowers  of  that  sunny  land, 
and  during  the  Confederate  war,  when  cramped  resources 
denied  bestowal  of  the  smallest  tokens  of  friendship,  we  find 
his  letters  to  dear  ones  frequently  laden  with  the  floral  emblems 


of  his  constant  thought  and  love.  In  one  of  them  he  says :  "  I 
send  you  some  sweet  violets  that  I  gathered  for  you  this  morn 
ing  while  covered  with  the  dense  white  frost  whose  crystals 
glittered  in  the  bright  sun  like  diamonds,  and  formed  a  brooch 
of  rare  beauty  and  sweetness  which  could  not  be  fabricated  by 
the  expenditure  of  a  world  of  money." 

And  when  after  the  war  he  visited  Alexandria,  the  scene  of 
his  boyhood  days,  one  of  his  old  neighbors  found  him  gazing 
over  the  palings  of  the  garden  where  he  used  to  play.  "  I  am 
looking,"  he  said,  "  to  see  if  the  old  snow-ball  trees  are  still 
here.  I  should  be^sorry  to  miss  them."  How  he  loved,  too, 
these  grand  mountains  !  Amongst  them,  mounted  on  his  faith 
ful  war-horse,  Traveller,  lie  often  roamed  while  he  spent  his 
days  amongst  you.  And  here  in  nature's  works  he  found 
refreshment  from  the  toils  of  life,  and  looked  from  nature 
up  to  nature's  God. 

His  tenderness  was  as  instinctive  as  his  valor.  A  writer 
who,  on  one  occasion,  stood  in  his  company  watching  a  fire  in 
the  mountains,  relates  how,  when  others  were  wrapt  in  its 
scenic  grandeur,  General  Lee  remarked  :  "  It  is  beautiful !  but 
I  have  been  thinking  of  the  poor  animals  that  must  perish  in 
the  flames."  And  another  tells  how,  when  in  the  lines  near 
Richmond,  the  bolts  of  battle  swept  the  point  where  the  Gen 
eral  stood,  he  ordered  his  attendants  to  the  rear,  and  while 
himself  calmly  surveying  the  field  under  fire,  he  "Stopped  to 
pick  up  a  fledging  sparrow  that  had  fallen  from  its  nest,  and 
restore  it  to  the  bough  overhead. 

Pictures,  are  these,  full  of  infinite  suggestion  ! 

A  Robespierre  and  a  Torquemada  may  exhibit  emotional 
tenderness,  shallow  and  fitful,  but  that  of  Lee  was  the  vital 
principle  of  a  robust,  exalted  nature,  which  found  its  inspira 
tions  in  the  sacred  heart  of  Charity,  and  diffused  itself  in  cease 
less  acts  of  magnanimity  and  love. 

So  it  was  that  while  the  passions  of  men  were  loosened,  and 
the  fierce  work  of  war  spread  havoc  and  desolation  far  and 
wide,  he  who  directed  its  tremendous  forces  with  stern  and 
nervous  hand,  moved  also  amongst  its  scenes  of  woe — a  gra- 


71 

cious  and  healing  spirit.  So  it  was  to  him  a  stricken  foe  was  a 
foe  no  longer — that  his  orders  to  the  surgeons  of  his  army  were 
to  "treat  the  whole  field  alike,"  and  when,  at  Chancellorsville, 
he  in  person  led  the  tempestuous  assault  that  won  the  victory, 
and  stood  amongst  the  wounded  of  the  blue  and  glay,  heaped 
around  him  in  indiscriminate  carnage — his  first  thought  and 
care  were  for  them,  alike  in  their  common  suffering.  So  it  was 
that  whether  in  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  or  Virginia,  he 
restrained  every  excess  of  conduct,  and  held  the  reckless  and 
the  ruthless  within  those  bounds  which  duty  sets  to  action.  So 
it  was  that  to  one  homeless  during  the  days  of  strife,  he  wrote : 
"  Occupy  yourself  in  helping  those  more  helpless  than  your 
self."  So  it  was,  that  when  the  gallant  General  Phil.  Kearney 
fell  at  Ox  Hill,  he  sent  his  sword  and  horse  through  the  lines 
to  his  mourning  widow — and  that  when  Lincoln  was  struck 
down  by  an  assassin's  hand,  he  denounced  the  deed  as  "  a  crime 
previously  unknown  to  the  country,  and  one  that  must  be  dep 
recated  by  every  American."  And  so,  too,  when  one  day  here, 
a  man  humbly  clad  sought  alms  at  his  door,  Lee  pointed  to  his 
retiring  form  and  said  :  "  That  is  one  of  our  old  soldiers  who  is 
in  necessitous  circumstances.  He  fought  on  the  other  side,  but 
we  must  not  remember  that  against  him  now."  And  this  poor 
soldier  said  of  him  afterwards:  "  He  is  the  noblest  man  that 
ever  lived.  He  not  only  had  a  kind  word  for  me,  but  he  gave 
me  some  money  to  help  me  on  my  way."  Better  is  that  praise 
than  any  garland  of  the  Poet  or  the  Rhetorician. 

THE  RELATIONS  BETWEEN  LEE  AND  HIS  MEN. 

As  we  glance  back  through  the  smoke-drifts  of  his  many 
campaigns  and  battles,  his  kind,  considerate  acts  towards  his 
officers  and  men  gleam  through  them  as  brightly  as  their  bur 
nished  weapons  ;  and  they  formed  a  fellowship  as  noble  as  that 
which  bound  the  Knights  of  the  Round  Table  to  Arthur, "  the 
blameless  King."  His  principle  of  discipline  was  indicated  in 
his  expression  that  "  a  true  man  of  honor  feels  himself  hum 
bled  when  he  cannot  help  humbling  others,"  and  never  exer 
cising  stern  authority  except  when  absolutely  indispensable,  his 


influence  was  the  more  potent  because  it  ever  appealed  to  hon 
orable  motives  and  natural  affections.  In  the  dark  days  of  the 
Revolution,  two  Major-Generals  conspired  with  a  faction  of  the 
Continental  Congress  to  put  Gates  in  the  place  of  Washing 
ton,  denominating  him  a  "weak  General."  Xever  did  Con 
federate  dream  a  disloyal  thought  of  Lee,  and  the  greater  the 
disaster,  the  more  his  army  leaned  upon  him. 

When  Jackson  fell,  Lee  wrote  to  him  :  "  You  are  better  off 
than  I  am,  for  while  you  have  lost  your  left  arm,  I  have  lost 
my  right  arm."  And  Jackson  said  of  him :  "  Lee  is  a  phe 
nomenon.  He  is  the  only  man  that  I  would  follow  blindfold." 
Midway  between  Petersburg  and  Appomattox,  with  the  ruins 
of  an  Empire  falling  on  his  shoulders,  and  the  gory  remnants 
of  his  army  staggering  under  the  thick  blows  of  the  advancing 
foe,  we  see  Lee  turning  aside  from  the  column,  and  riding  up 
to  the  home  of  the  widow  of  the  gallant  Colonel  John  Thorn" 
ton,  who  had  fallen  at  Sharpsburg.  "  I  have  not  time  to  tarry," 
he  says,  "  but  I  could  not  pass  by  without  stopping  a  moment 
to  pay  my  respects  to  the  widow  of  my  honored  soldier,  Colo 
nel  Thorton,  and  tender  her  my  deepest  sympathy  in  the  sore 
bereavement  she  sustained  when  the  country  was  deprived  of 
his  invaluable  services." 

Three  of  his  sons  were  there  in  the  army  with  him  ;  but  they 
were  too  noble  to  seek,  and  he  too  noble  to  bestow,  honors 
because  of  the  tie  of  blood.  One  of  them,  a  private  in  the 
artillery,  served  his  gun  with  his  fellows.  Another  is  in  a  hos 
tile  prison,  and  a  Federal  officer  of  equal  rank  begs  that  Gen 
eral  Lee  will  effect  an  exchange,  the  one  for  the  other.  The 
General  declined,  saying,  "  that  he  will  ask  no  favor  for  his 
own  son  that  could  not  be  asked  for  the  humblest  private  in  the 
army."  On  the  cars,  crowded  with  passengers,  a  soldier,  scarce 
noticed,  struggles  to  draw  his  coat  over  his  wounded  arm.  One 
from  amongst  many  rises  and  goes  to  his  aid.  It  is  General 
Lee.  An  army  surgeon  relates  that  while  the  battle  of  the 
Crater  raged,  General  Lee  rode  to  the  rear  of  the  line  where 
the  wounded  lay,  and,  dismounting,  moved  amongst  them. 
"Doctor,  why  are  you  not  doing  something  for  this  man,"  he 


said,  pointing  to  one  sorely  stricken.  The  Doctor  raised  the 
gray  jacket  and  pointed  to  the  ghastly  wound  which  made 
life  hopeless.  General  Lee  bent  tenderly  over  the  wounded 
man  and  then  in  a  voice  tremulous  with  emotion,  exclaimed  : 
"  Alas !  poor  soldier  !  may  God  make  soft  his  dying  pillow." 

Such  were  some  of  the  many  acts  that  made  the  men  love 
Lee.  And  in  the  fight  he  was  ever  ready  to  be  foremost.  Lee 
the  Soldier,  over-rode  Lee  the  General,  and  when  the  pinch 
and  struggle  came,  there  was  he.  "Lee  to  the  rear"  became 
the  soldiers'  battle-cry ;  and  oftentimes,  when  the  long  lines 
came  gleaming  on,  and  shot  and  shell  in  tempest  ripped  the 
earth,  uptore  the  forest  and  filled  the  air  with  death,  those  sol 
diers  in  their  rusty  rags,  paused  as  they  saw  his  face  amongst 
them  ;  and  then,  with  manhood's  imperious  love,  these  sove 
reigns  of  the  field  commanded,  "  General  Lee,  go  back,"  as 
their  condition  of  advancing.  And  then  forward  to  the  death. 
Was  ever  such  devotion  ?  Yes,  Lee  loved  his  men  "  as  a  father 
pitieth  his  children,"  and  they  loved  him  with  a  love  that 
"passeth  the  love  of  woman,"  for  they  saw  in  him  the  iron  hero 
who  could  lead  the  brave  with  front  as  dauntless  as  a  warrior's 
crest,  and  the  gentle  friend  who  comforted  the  stricken  with 
soul  as  tender  as  a  mother's  prayer. 

FORGIVENESS. 

Lee  had  nothing  in  common  with  the  little  minds  that  know 
not  how  to  forgive.  His  was  the  land  that  had  been  invaded  ; 
his  the  people  who  were  cut  down,  ravaged  and  ruined  ; 
his  the  home  that  was  torn  away  and  spoliated  ;  his  was  the 
cause  that  perished.  He  was  the  General  discrowned  of  his 
mighty  place,  and  he  the  citizen  disfranchised.  Yet  Lee  for 
gave,  and  counselled  all  to  forgive  and  forget. 

The  Greek  poet  has  said  : 

*'  The  firmest  mind  will  fail 

Beneath  misfortune's  stroke,  and  stunned,  depart 
From  its  sage  plan  of  action." 

But  the  mind  of  Lee  received  the  rude  shock  of  destiny 
without  a  quiver;  so  the  genial  currents  of  his  sweet,  heroic 


74 

soul  rolled  on  unruffled,  while  in  their  calm,  pure  depths  were 
reflected  the  light  of  heaven. 

When  a  minister  once  denounced  the  North,  and  the  indict 
ment  of  General  Lee  for  treason,  the  general  followed  him  to 
the  door  and  said  :  "  Doctor,  there  is  a  good  old  book  which  I 
read,  and  you  preach  from,  which  says :  i  Love  your  enemies, 
bless  them  that  curse  you,  do  good  to  them  that  hate  you,  and 
pray  for  them  which  dispitef ully  use  you.'  Do  you  think  your 
remarks  this  evening  were  quite  in  the  spirit  of  that  teaching  ?" 
And  he  added  :  "  I  have  fought  against  the  people  of  the 
North  because  I  believed  they  were  seeking  to  wrest  from  the 
South  her  dearest  rights.  But  I  have  never  cherished  toward 
them  bitter  or  vindictive  feelings,  and  have  never  seen  the  day 
when  I  did  not  pray  for  them." 

Soon  after  the  passage  of  those  harsh  acts  of  Congress,  dis 
franchising  Confederates  for  participating  in  the  war,  and 
while  every  Southern  breast  was  filled  with  indignation,  some 
friends  in  General  Lee's  presence  expressed  themselves  with 
great  bitterness.  The  General  turned  to  the  table  near  him, 
where  lay  the  manuscript  of  his  father's  life,  which  he  was 
then  editing,  and  read  these  lines  : 

"  Learn  from  yon  Orient  shell  to  love  thy  foe, 
And  store  with  pearls  the  hand  that  brings  thee  woe  ; 
Free  like  yon  rock,  from  base,  vindictive  pride, 
Emblaze  with  gems  the  wrist  that  rends  thy  side. 
Mark  where  yon  tree  rewards  the  stony  shower, 
With  fruit  nectarious  or  the  balmy  flower ; 
All  Nature  cries  aloud  :  shall  men  do  less 
Than  love  the  smiter,  and  the  railer  bless  ?" 

"  These  lines,"  said  he,  "were  written  in  Arabia,  and  by  a 
Mahomedan,  the  Poet  of  Sliiraz,  the  immortal  Hafiz ;  and 
ought  not  we,  who  profess  to  be  governed  by  the  principles  of 
Christianity,  to  rise  at  least  to  the  standard  of  this  Mahomedan 
poet,  and  learn  to  -forgive  our  enemies  ?" 

In  the  rush  of  this  age,  a  character  so  simply  meek  and  so 
proudly,  grandly  strong,  is  scarce  comprehensible  to  the  eager, 
restless  competitors  for  wealth  and  place  and  power.  And  the 
"  practical  man,"  as  he  is  called,  who  ever  keeps  a  keen  eye  to 


the  main  chance,  and  is  esteemed  happy  just  in  proportion  as 
fortune  favors  his  schemes  of  ambition  or  profit,  is  apt  to 
attribute  weakness  to  one  so  void  of  selk-seeking  and  resent 
ment,  and  so  amiable  and  gentle  in  his  feelings  and  conduct 
towards  his  fellow-men.  But  could  he  have  seen  with  what 
patient  attention  to  detail  this  ceaseless  worker  dispatched 
business  and  brought  great  results  from  small  materials — with 
what  quick,  strong,  comprehensive  grasp  he  solved  difficulties 
and  conquered  dangers — what  good  cheer  he  gave  the  toiling ; 
what  hope  he  gave  the  despondent ;  what  comfort  he  gave  the 
afflicted.  Aye  !  could  he  have  caught  the  glance  of  that  eagle 
eye,  and  looked  on  that  serene,  bold  brow  which  over-awed  the 
field  of  battle,  and  then  beheld  the  swift,  stern,  inspiring 
energy  which  propelled  its  forces  to  deeds  which  seemed  almost 
impossible  to  man — there  would  have  been  to  him  a  new  rev 
elation.  He  would  have  beheld  a  character  which,  to  one 
unacquainted  with  it,  would  seem  to  have  been  idealized  by 
the  genius  of  the  poet  rather  that  to  have  existed  in  the  flesh, 
and  to  have  stepped  forth  from  the  sanctuary  of  romance 
rather  than  to  have  belonged  to  real  history.  He  would  have 
realized,  by  contact  with  this  simple  gentleman,  that  the  true 
greatness  and  true  glory  of  man  lies  in  those  elements  which 
are  superior  to  fortune — that  he  is  most  practical  who  is  him 
self  above  it,  and  that  happiness,  if  ever  on  earth  happiness  be 
found,  has  fixed  her  temple  only  in  the  heart  that  is  without 
guile,  and  is  without  reproach  of  man  or  woman. 

THE    LAST    DAYS    OF    GENERAL    LEE. 

Five  years  rolled  by  while  here  "  the  self-imposed  mission  " 
of  Lee  was  being  accomplished,  and  now,  in  1870,  he  had 
reached  the  age  of  sixty-three.  A  robust  constitution,  never 
abused  by  injurious  habits,  would  doubtless  have  prolonged  his 
life  beyond  the  three-score  years  and  ten  which  the  Psalmist 
has  ascribed  as  the  allotted  term  of  man  ;  but  many  causes 
were  sapping  and  undermining  it.  The  exposures  of  two  wars 
in  which  he  had  participated,  and  the  tremendous  strain  on 
nerves  and  heart  and  brain  which  his  vast  responsibilities  and 


76 

his  accumulated  trials  had  entailed,  had  been  silently  and  grad 
ually  doing  their  work  ;  and  now  his  step  had  lost  something 
of  its  elasticity,  the  shoulders  began  to  stoop  as  if  under  a 
growing  burden,  and  the  ruddy  glow  of  health  upon  his  coun 
tenance  had  passed  into  a  feverish  flush.  Into  his  ears,  and  into 
his  heart,  had  been  poured  the  afflictions  of  his  people,  and 
while'  composed  and  self-contained  and  uncomplaining,  who 
could  have  looked  upon  that  great  face,  over  whose  majestic 
lineaments  there  stole  the  shade  of  sadness,  without  perceiving 
that  grief  for  those  he  loved  was  gnawing  at  the  heart  strings  ( 
without  perceiving  in  the  brilliant  eye,  which  now  and  then  had 
a  far-away,  abstracted  gaze,  that  the  soul  within  bore  a  sorrow 
"  that  only  Heaven  could  heal." 

What  he  suffered  his  lips  have  never  spoken.  In  the  beau 
tiful  language  of  another  :  "  His  lips  were  closed  like  the  gates 
of  some  majestic  temple,  not  for  concealment,  but  because  that 
within  was  holy."  Yet,  let  us  take  consolation  to  ourselves 
that  there  came  to  him  much  to  give  him  joy.  Around  him 
were  those  united  by  the  closest  ties  of  blood  and  relationship 
in  unremitting  fidelity.  Not  a  man  of  those  who  ever  fought 
under  him — aye,  not  one — ever  proved  faithless  in  respect  for 
him  ;  the  great  mass  of  them  gave  to  him  every  expression  in 
their  power  of  their  affection.  To  the  noble  mind,  sweet  is  the 
generous  and  genuine  praise  of  noble  men,  and  for  Lee  there 
was  full  measure.  He  lived  to  see  deeply  laid  the  foundation, 
and  firmly  built  the  pedestal,  of  his  great  glory,  and  to  catch 
the  murmur  of  those  voices  which  would  rear  high  his  image 
and  bear  his  name  and  fame  to  remote  ages,  and  distant  nations. 
The  brave  and  true  of  every  land  paid  him  tribute.  The  first 
soldiers  of  foreign  climes  saluted  him  with  eulogy  ;  the  scholar 
decorated  his  page  with  dedication  to  his  name,  the  artist 
enshrined  his  form  and  features  in  noblest  work  of  brush  and 
chisel,  the  poet  hymned  the  heroic  pathos  of  his  life  in  tender, 
lofty  strain.  Enmity  grew  into  friendship  before  his  noble 
bearing,  and  humanity  itself  attended  him  with  all  human 
sympathy.  And  over  all,  "  God  made  soft  his  dying  pillow." 


DEATH. 

The  particular  form  of  his  mortal  malady  was  rheumatism  of 
tke  heart,  originating  in  the  exposure  of  his  campaigns,  and 
aggravated  by  the  circumstances  of  his  many  trying  situations. 
He  traveled  South  in  the  spring  of  1870,  and  in  the  summer 
resorted  to  the  Hot  springs  of  Virginia  ;  and  when  September 
came,  he  was  here  in  better  health  and  spirits,  at  his  accustomed 
work.  On  the  28th  of  September,  he  conducted,  as  usual,  his 
correspondence,  and  performed  the  incidental  tasks  of  his  office, 
and  after  dinner  he  attended  a  meeting  of  the  Vestry  of  Grace 
Episcopal  Church,  of  which  body  he  was  a  member.  A  ques 
tion  as  to  the  ministers  salary  coining  before  the  Board,  and 
there  being  a  deficiency  in  the  amount  necessary.  General  Lee 
said  :  "  I  will  give  that  sum."  A  sense  of  weariness  came  over 
him  before  the  meeting  ended,  and  at  its  close  he  retired  with 
wan,  flushed  face.  Returning  home,  he  found  the  family  cir 
cle  gathered  for  tea,  and  took  his  place  at  the  board,  standing 
to  say  grace.  The  lips  failed  to  voice  the  blessings  prompted 
by  the  heart,  and  without  a  word  he  took  his  seat  with  an 
expression  of  sublime  resignation  on  his  face  ;  for  well  he 
knew  that  the  Master's  call  had  come,  and  he  was  ready  to 
answer. 

He  was  borne  to  his  chamber,  and  skilled  physicians  and  lov 
ing  hands  did  all  that  man  could  do.  For  nearly  a  fortnight 

"  Twixt  night  and  morn  upon  the  horizon's  verge, 
Between  two  worlds  life  hovered  like  a  star." 

And  thus  on  the  morning  of  October  litth,  the  star  of  the  mor 
tal  sank  into  the  sunrise  of  immortality,  and  Kobert  Lee  passed 
hence  to  "  where  beyond  these  voices  there  is  peace." 

"  Tell  A.  P.  Hill  to  prepare  for  action,"  were  amongst  the 
last  words  of  Stonewall  Jackson.  "  Tell  Hill  he  must  come 
up,"  were  the  last  words  of  Lee.  Their  brave  Lieutenant,  who 
rests  under  the  green  turf  of  Hollywood,  seems  to  have  been 
latest  in  the  minds  of  his  great  commanders,  while  their  spirits 
yet  in  martial  fancy,  roamed  again  the  fields  of  conflict,  and 
ere  they  passed  to  where  the  soldier  dreams  of  battle-fields  no 
more. 


78 

THE  LESSONS  OF  III8  LIFE. 

And  did  he  live  in  vain,  this  brave  and  gentle  Lee  ?  And 
have  his  works  perished  with  him  ?  I  would  blush  to  ask  the 
question  save  to  give  the  answer. 

A  leader  of  armies  he  closed  his  career  in  complete  disaster. 
But  the  military  scientist  studies  his  campaigns,  and  finds  in 
them  designs  as  bold  and  brilliant  and  actions  as  intense  and 
energetic  as  ever  illustrated  the  art  of  war.  The  gallant  cap 
tain  beholds  in  his  bearing,  courage  as  rare  as  ever  forced  a 
desperate  field,  or  restored  a  lost  one.  The  private  soldier 
looks  up  at  an  image  as  benignant  and  commanding  as  ever 
thrilled  the  heart  with  highest  impulse  of  devotion. 

The  men  who  wrested  victory  from  his  little  band,  stood 
wonder-stricken  and  abashed  when  they  saw  how  few  were 
those  who  dared  oppose  them,  and  generous  admiration  burst 
into  spontaneous  tribute  to  the  splendid  leader  who  bore  defeat 
with  the  quiet  resignation  of  a  hero.  The  men  who  fought 
under  him  never  revered  or  loved  him  more  than  on  the  day 
he  sheathed  his  sword.  II ad  he  but  said  the  word,  they  would 
have  died  for  honor.  It  was  because  he  said  the  word  that 
they  resolved  to  live  for  duty. 

Plato  congratulated  himself,  first,  that  he  was  born  a  man ; 
second,  that  he  had  the  happiness  of  being  a  Greek  ;  and, 
third,  that  he  was  the  contemporary  of  Sophocles.  And  in 
this  vast  throng  to-day,  and  here  and  there  the  wide  world 
over,  is  many  an  one  who  wore  the  grey,  who  rejoices  that  he 
was  born  a  man  to  do  a  man's  part  for  his  suffering  country  ; 
that  he  had  the  glory  of  being  a  Confederate  ;  and  who  feels  a 
just,  proud  and  glowing  consciousness  in  his  bosom  when  he 
says  unto  himself  :  "  I  was  a  follower  of  Kobert  Lee.  I  was  a 
soldier  in  the  army  of  Northern  Virginia." 

DID  HE  WIELD  PATRONAGE  AND  POWER  i 

No,  he  could  not  have  appointed  a  friend  to  the  smallest 
office.  He  could  bestow  no  emolument  upon  any  of  his  fol 
lowers.  But  an  intimation  of  his  wish  amongst  his  own  peo- 


79 

pie  carried  an  influence  which  the  command  of  the  autocrat  can 
never  possess,  and  his  approval  of  conduct  or  character  was 
deemed  an  honor,  and  was  an  honor,  which  outvied  the  stars 
and  crosses  and  titles  conferred  by  kings. 

DID  HE    GAIN  WEALTH. 

No.  lie  neither  sought  nor  despised  it.  It  thrust  itself 
upon  him,  but  he  put  it  away  from  him.  He  refused  its  com 
panionship  because  its  people  could  not  have  its  company.  He 
gave  what  he  had  to  a  weak  cause,  and  to  those  whose  necessi 
ties  were  greater  than  his  own.  And  home  itself  he  sacrificed 
on  the  altar  of  his  country.  But  he  refuted  the  shallow  world 
ling's  maxim  that  "  every  man  has  his  price,"  and  proved  that 
true  manhood  has  none,  however  great. 

The  plunderer  of  India  defended  himself  by  exclaiming  that 
"  when  he  considered  his  opportunities,  he  was  astonished  at  his 
own  moderation."  Mark  Antony  appeased  the  anger  of  the 
Roman  populace  against  the  fallen  tyrant  by  Caesar's  will, 
wherein  he  left  them  his  rich  and  fair  possessions — to  them 
and  their  heirs  forever.  The  Captive  of  St.  Helena,  aggran 
dized  with  the  tears  and  blood  of  Europe,  drew  his  own  long 
will,  dispensing  millions  to  his  favorites.  Lee  had  opportuni 
ties  as  great  as  any  conqueror  and  took  nothing — not  even  that 
which  others  pushed  upon  him. 

But  he  has  left  a  great,  imperishable  legacy  to  us  and  our 
heirs  forever.  The  heart  of  man  is  his  perpetual  kingdom. 
There  he  reigns  transcendent,  and  we  exclaim  :  "  Oh,  king, 
live  forever." 


Not  so.  Far  from  it.  He  was  not  even  a  citizen.  The 
country  which  gave  the  right  of  suffrage  to  the  alien  ere  he 
could  speak  its  language,  and  to  the  African  freedman  ere  he 
could  read  or  understand  its  laws,  denied  to  him  the  privilege 
of  a  ballot.  He  had  asked  amnesty.  He  had  been  refused. 
He  had  not  been  tried,  but  he  had  been  convicted.  He  for 
gave,  but  he  was  unforgiven.  He  died  a  paroled  prisoner  of 


80 

war,  in  the  calm  of  peace,  five  years  after  war  had  ended — died 
the  foremost  and  noblest  man  in  a  Republic  which  proclaims 
itself  "  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the  brave,"  him 
self  and  his  Commander-in-Chief  constituting  the  most  conspicu 
ous  of  its  political  slaves.  But  as  the  oak,  stripped  of  the  foli 
age  by  the  winter  blast,  then,  and  then  only,  stands  forth  in 
solemn  and  mighty  majesty  against  the  wintry  sky,  so  Robert 
Lee,  stripped  of  every  rank  that  man  could  give  him,  towered 
above  the  earth  and  those  around  him,  in  the  pure  sublimity 
and  strength  of  that  character  which  we  can  only  fitly  contem 
plate  when  we  lift  our  eyes  from  earth  and  see  it  dimmed 
against  the  Heavens ! 

DID  HE  SAVfc  HIS  COUNTRY  FROM  CONQUEST? 

No.  He  saw  his  every  foreboding  of  evil  verified.  He 
came  to  share  the  miseries  of  his  people.  He  shared  them, 
drinking  every  drop  of  Sorrow's  cup.  His  cause  was  lost,  and 
the  land  for  which  he  fought  lives  not  amongst  the  nations. 
But  the  voice  of  History  echoes  the  poet's  song  : 

"  Ah  !  realm  of  tombs !  but  let  it  bear 

This  blazon  to  the  last  of  times  ; 
No  nation  rose  so  white  and  fair, 
Or  fell  so  pure  from  crimes." 

And  he,  its  type,  lived  and  died,  teaching  life's  greatest  les 
sons,  "  to  suffer  and  be  strong,''  and  that  u  misfortune  nobly 
borne  is  good  fortune." 

There  is  a  rare  exotic  that  blooms  but  once  in  a  century,  and 
then  it  fills  the  light  with  beauty  and  the  air  with  fragrance. 
In  each  of  the  two  centuries  of  Virginia's  Statehood,  there  has 
sprung  from  the  loins  of  her  heroic  race,  a  son  whose  name  and 
deeds  wrill  bloom  throughout  the  ages.  Each  fought  for  Lib 
erty  and  Independence  ;  each  against  a  people  of  his  own  race  ; 
each  against  the  forms  of  established  power.  George  Wash 
ington  won  against  a  kingdom  whose  seat  was  three  thousand 
miles  away,  whose  soldiers  had  to  sail  in  ships  across  the  deep, 
and  he  found  in  the  boundless  areas  of  his  own  land  its  strong- 


81 

est  fortifications.  August,  beyond  the  reach  of  detraction,  is 
the  glory  of  his  name.  Robert  Edward  Lee  made  fiercer  and 
bloodier  fight  against  greater  odds,  and  at  greater  sacrifice,  and 
lost — against  the  greatest  nation  of  modern  history,  armed  with 
ste<im  and  electricity,  and  all  the  appliances  of  modern  science; 
a  nation  which  mustered  its  hosts  at  the  very  threshold  of  his 
door.  But  his  life  teaches  the  grandest  lesson  how  manhood 
can  rise  transcendent  over  Adversity,  and  is  in  itself  alone, 
under  God,  pre-eminent — the  grander  lesson,  because  as  sorrow 
and  misfortune  are  sooner  or  later  the  common  lot — even  that 
of  him  who  is  to-day  the  conqueror — he  who  bears  them  best  is 
made  of  sterner  stuff,  and  is  the  most  useful  and  universal,  as 
he  is  the  greatest  and  noblest  exemplar. 

And  now  he  has  vanished  from  us  forever.  And  is  this  all 
that  is  left  of  him — this  handful  of  dust  beneath  the  marble 
stone  ?  No,  the  Ages  answer  as  they  rise  from  the  gulfs  of 
Time,  where  lay  the  wrecks  of  kingdoms  and  estates,  holding 
up  in  their  hands  as  their  only  trophies,  the  names  of  those 
who  have  wrought  for  man  in  the  love  arid  fear  of  God,  and  in 
love  unf earing  for  their  fellow-men. 

C* 

No  !  the  present  answers,  bending  by  his  tomb. 

No  !  the  future  answers,  as  the  breath  of  the  morning  fans 
its  radiant  brow,  and  its  soul  drinks  in  sweet  inspirations  from 
the  lovely  life  of  Lee. 

No,  methinks  the  very  heavens  echo,  as  melt  into  their 
depths  the  words  of  reverent  love  that  voice  the  hearts  of  men 
to  the  tingling  stars. 

CONCLUSION. 

Come  we  then  to-day  in  loyal  love  to  sanctify  our  memories, 
to  purify  our  hopes,  to  make  strong  all  good  intent  by  commu 
nion  with  the  spirit  of  him,  who,  being  dead,  yet  speaketh. 
Come,  child,  in  thy  spotless  innocence ;  come,  woman,  in  thy 
purity  ;  come,  youth,  in  thy  prime  ;  come,  manhood,  in  thy 
strength  ;  come,  age,  in  thy  ripe  wisdom  ;  come  citizen,  come 
soldier,  let  us  strew  the  roses  and  lilies  of  June  around  his 


tomb,  for  lie,  like  them,  exhaled  in  his  life  Nature's  benefi 
cence,  and  the  grave  has  consecrated  that  life,  and  given  it  to 
us  all ;  let  us  crown  his  tomb  with  the  oak,  the  emblem  of  his 
strength,  and  with  the  laurel,  the  emblem  of  his  glory,  and  let 
these  guns,  whose  voices  he  knew  of  old,  awake  the  echoes  of 
the  mountains  that  Nature  herself  may  join  in  his  solemn 
requiem. 

Come,  for  here  he  rests,  and — 

"  On  this  green  bank,  by  this  fair  stream, 

We  set  to-day  a  native  stone, 
That  memory  may  his  deeds  redeem. 
When,  like  our  sires,  our  sons  are  gone." 

Come,  for  here  the  genius  of  loftiest  poesy  in  the  artist's 
dream,  and  through  the  sculptor's  touch,  has  restored  his  form 
and  features — a  Valentine  has  lifted  the  marble  veil  and  dis 
closed  him  to  us  as  we  would  love  to  look  upon  him — lying, 
the  flower  of  knighthood,  in  "Joyous  Gard."  His  sword 
beside  him  is  sheathed  forever.  But  honor's  seal  is  on  his 
brow,  and  valor's  star  is  on  his  breast,  and  the  peace  that  pass- 
eth  all  understanding  descends  upon  him.  Here,  not  in  the 
hour  of  his  grandest  triumph  of  earth,  as  when  mid  the  battle 
roar,  shouting  battalions  followed  his  trenchant  sword,  and 
bleeding  veterans  forgot  their  wounds  to  leap  between  him  and 
his  enemies — but  here  in  victory,  supreme  over  earth  itself, 
and  over  death,  its  conqueror,  he  rests,  his  warfare  done. 

And  as  we  seem  to  gaze  once  more  on  him  we  loved  and 
hailed  as  chief,  in  his  sweet,  dreamless  sleep,  the  tranquil  face  is 
clothed  with  heaven's  light,  and  the  mute  lips  seem  eloquent 
with  the  message  that  in  life  he  spoke : 

"  There  is  a  true  glory  and  a  true  honor ;  the  glory  of  duty 
done,  the  honor  of  the  integrity  of  principle" 


83 

After  the  conclusion  of  Major  Daniel's  oration,  Father  Ryan, 
at  the  request  of  Gen.  Early,  recited  his  celebrated  poem  : 

THE  SWORD  OF  LEE. 

Forth  from  its  scabbard,  pure  and  bright, 

Flashed  the  sword  of  Lee  ! 
Far  in  the  front  of  the  deadly  fight, 
High  o'er  the  brave  in  the  cause  of  right, 
Its  stainless  sheen,  like  a  beacon-light, 

Led  us  to  victory. 

Out  of  its  scabbard,  where  full  long, 

It  slumbered  peacefully — 
Boused  from  its  rest  by  the  battle- song, 
Shielding  the  feeble,  smiting  the  strong, 
Guarding  the  right,  and  avenging  the  wrong — 

Gleamed  the  sword  of  Lee  ! 

Forth  from  its  scabbard,  high  in  air, 

Beneath  Virginia's  sky — 
And  they  who  saw  it  gleaming  there, 
And  knew  who  bore  it,  knelt  to  swear 
That  where  that  sword  led  they  would  dare 

To  follow  and  to  die. 

Out  of  its  scabbard !  Never  hand 

Waved  sword  from  stain  as  free, 
Nor  purer  sword  led  braver  band, 
Nor  braver  bled  for  a  brighter  land, 
Nor  brighter  land  had  a  cause  as  grand, 

Nor  cause,  a  chief  like  Lee  ! 

Forth  from  its  scabbard  !  how  we  prayed 

That  sword  might  victor  be  ! 
And  when  our  triumph  was  delayed, 
And  many  a  heart  grew  sore  afraid, 
We  still  hoped  on,  while  gleamed  the  blade 

Of  noble  Robert  Lee  ! 

Forth  from  its  scabbard !  all  in  vain  ! 

Forth  flashed  the  sword  of  Lee  ! 
'Tis  shrouded  now  in  its  sheath  again, 
It  sleeps  the  sleep  of  our  noble  slain, 
Defeated,  yet  without  a  stain, 

Proudly  and  peacefully. 


V  ' 


UNIVEKSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY, 
BERKELEY 


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